Horizon: Haven Lake
by InvisiblePrincess2002
Summary: This is the first story in my Horizon series. AU. A badly injured lady named Louise is horrified to wake up in the basement of a serial killer with no memories and no knowledge of how she got there. After she is rescued, she is forced to start a new life for herself in the small town of Haven Lake, Massachusetts.
1. The Hellhole

**Author's Note: **This story is based on the CBS television series _The Jeffersons_ and as far as I know, it is the property of Columbia Pictures Television, Sony Pictures Television, TAT Communications Company, Embassy Television, Shout! Factory, and of course, CBS. **No infringement is intended.**

**TRIGGER WARNING: **This chapter contains disturbing scenes of physical and sexual abuse and may be triggering for abuse survivors. **PLEASE **consider carefully before reading. Thank you.

**Chapter Summary: **A badly injured woman named Louise wakes up in the basement of a serial killer with no memories of her life and no knowledge of how she got there.

**Chapter 1: The Hellhole**

A thousand knives sliced through her broken legs as they pulsated with fire. The pain was unbelievable, and that was an understatement. She didn't even try to stop the tears from flowing. As she lay there on the concrete floor inside that dark, dingy basement, she just allowed herself to cry. The beautiful middle-aged black lady had no idea who she was or how she'd ended up here or how her legs had gotten broken. The only two things she knew for sure in that moment were that she was in agony and that she was in dire need of help.

Several hours passed before someone finally came. The woman heard the door open a crack, and then she heard the sound of little footsteps tiptoeing down the stairs. Moments later, a little girl with long, jet-black hair and brown eyes plopped down beside her. She then held up her head and helped her drink the small cup of water she'd brought with her.

"I'm so glad you're awake, Louise," the child's small voice said to her in the dark. "You passed out three days ago. I was scared that you might never wake up."

"Where am I?" the woman asked in her deep, booming voice. "What happened to me? How did I get here? And who are you?"

"Shh!" the child whispered. "You have to be quiet or he'll hear you."

"Who?"

"Don't you remember?"

"No. I don't remember anything," she said in a whisper. "Who are you?"

"I'm Melissa. Melissa Chen. We've been friends ever since he brought you here."

"Who?" the woman asked through her tears.

It was in that instant that they both heard the ominous sound of heavy footsteps, and Melissa looked at the woman then and whispered, "Shh! He's coming!"

The door opened, and a huge, muscular, terrifying brown-haired man threw an older, silver-haired man down the stairs.

"Mark!" Melissa cried out, and then the basement lights were flipped on, and the woman was able to get a much better look at everything and everyone. The older man was bruised and bleeding. It was obvious that he'd recently endured a terrible beating, perhaps more than one. The woman then took a good look into Melissa's little face and saw that it too was covered with bruises.

Moments later, the brown-haired man came down the basement stairs and yelled, "What's going on down here?!"

As soon as the woman looked into his vicious gray eyes, she immediately realized that _he _was the cause of everybody's various injuries, including her own, and she knew that now, the best thing and really the _only_ thing she could do was to keep quiet.

That monster of a man walked around and stared at his three victims for several seconds while all their hearts pounded at about two hundred beats per minute. Finally, he said, "I've already had my fun with my buddy Mark tonight. Who's up next?" In the following moment, he looked into the woman's terrified eyes and said, "Ah yes, Louise. It's about time you woke up. We've really missed you these past few days. It just hasn't been the same without you."

He then grabbed the folding chair in the corner, the only piece of furniture in the sparse, dirty basement, and he unfolded it and set it down in the middle of the room. Afterwards, he picked up the rope lying on the floor, and he put Mark in the chair and tied him down to it.

"Sorry Mark, old boy, but you know the rules. After I get done with you, it's your job to sit and watch when it's the next person's time up. And speaking of the next person," he said as he turned towards Louise and Melissa, "who, oh who, will that next person be?" After a brief pause, he said, "Louise. Since you've returned to the land of the living, I'll let you be the one to decide." In the next terrifying moment, he unzipped his jeans, and Louise immediately realized what was about to happen to her. "Who's it gonna be, Louise? You or Melissa? Who's the next contestant in our little game?"

"Me," Louise responded in a shaky voice.

"So be it."

"No!" Mark cried out. "Haven't you done enough to the poor woman already?! Leave her alone!"

"Shut up!" he yelled, and then he punched Mark so hard that he knocked Mark and the chair over onto the floor. Melissa then began to cry, and she ran into the corner, hugged her knees to her chest, buried her face in her knees, and closed her eyes. Meanwhile, Mark was totally helpless as he watched Louise being brutally attacked and raped yet again. No matter how badly he wanted to muster up the strength to break free of the rope that bound him to the chair, it just wasn't possible; after the beating and rape he had just endured upstairs, he was simply too weak. As he watched that demonic pig force himself on Louise for what felt like the billionth time, all Mark could do was lie on the floor, tied up to the chair, and watch in horror.

* * *

Whenever it was possible, whenever that demon of a man left Mark alone with Louise in the basement, Louise and Mark talked. Mark explained to Louise who it was they were really dealing with: a serial killer. In Manhattan, he'd become known as "the 49er" because once every forty-nine days, he would kidnap someone, typically a woman, and beat her to death. After he killed his latest victim, he would take a knife and carve the number "49" somewhere on the victim's body to let police and the media know that he was the one who did it. Mark had been kidnapped by the 49er over six months ago and brought to the old, abandoned cabin here in the small town of Haven Lake, which was very close to Boston. He informed Louise that she had been there for the past three months, and that little Melissa had been there longer than either of them. Louise and Mark had barely had a chance to talk at all back when Louise still had her memory; in that time, Louise hadn't even had the opportunity to reveal her last name to Mark and Melissa. Louise wasn't wearing any rings on either hand so there was no indication that she was married. Unfortunately, there was nothing Mark could tell Louise about who she actually was or where she had come from. The only thing Mark could tell her was that the very first time they were alone together in the basement (and each of them tied up and barely able to move a muscle), they promised one another that they would always do whatever they could to protect Melissa and help her escape one day. And after Mark told Louise about it, they renewed their pact and agreed that no matter what, they would always put Melissa before themselves.

Sadly, it wasn't always possible for them to do that. Over the next several weeks after Louise regained consciousness, both she and Mark endured a number of rapes and beatings for Melissa, but one terrible night, neither one of them were given the option to protect her. Louise and Mark were terribly weak and just barely conscious after the injuries they'd received at that murderer's hands just the day before. They weren't tied up by ropes like they had been most of the time, but they were so weak, they may as well have been. Physically speaking, they were both pretty helpless when he came running down the stairs to the basement carrying Melissa, who was clearly scared out of her mind, and was crying and screaming her head off in fear.

"I'm gonna teach you a lesson, you little snake!" he hissed at Melissa as he brought her down the stairs and threw her on the floor.

"Stop it!" Louise cried out.

"Leave her alone!" Mark yelled as that demon unzipped his jeans and got down on the floor. In the following moments, Mark struggled to his feet, stumbled over to him, made a fist, and punched him in the back of the head. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to slow their attacker down. He was back up on his feet again seconds later, and he quickly retaliated. He punched Mark so hard that Mark instantly went down once again, completely unconscious.

Over the next several horrifying minutes, Melissa was brutally raped as Louise cried and screamed and yelled for him to stop. Both of her legs were broken in multiple places and getting up to walk was obviously impossible for her, so she did the only thing she could do. As difficult as it was for her, she somehow mustered up enough strength to push herself forward towards Melissa. However, it was a very long process and by the time Louise managed to reach Melissa, their attacker had finished raping her and had gone back upstairs. After it was all over, Melissa, wearing only a long, dingy gray shirt that came down to her knees, turned away from Louise and hugged her knees to her chest and just started crying.

"Melissa…baby, please let me hold you," Louise said softly while holding her arms out to the child.

Melissa was hesitant at first, but a few moments later, she lied down next to Louise and let her hold her while she cried.

"I wish my mom had been like you," Melissa said quietly. "When my mom and dad were still alive, my dad was just like him, and my mom never helped me the way you do."

"Did your father hurt you?" Louise asked, horrified to think that the poor child might have suffered any further abuse besides the hell she'd already endured.

Melissa nodded as even more tears came to her eyes, and Louise simply kissed the top of her head and continued to hold her close.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart. I'm so sorry."

"I love you, Louise."

Louise hugged Melissa even closer to her then and told her, "Oh baby, I love you, too. So much. I know this is hard to believe, Melissa, but somehow, some way, you and Mark and I _will _get out of here."

Melissa nodded, and she wanted so much to believe Louise, but hope was a fragile thing and it was dying off more and more with each passing minute that the three of them spent in that hellhole.


	2. In Louise's Corner

**A/N: **This story is based on the television series, _Star Trek: Voyager,_ which as far as I know is the property of Paramount Pictures. **No infringement is intended. **I also want to point out that this is the third story in my series of stories about Captain Janeway and the Doctor. The first story was _Command Decisions _and the second story was _Doctor's Orders_. If you haven't read those stories yet, I **strongly **suggest you read them first. This story, _Surrender_, will not make much sense unless you read the first and second stories in my J/D series. Thanks for stopping by. Happy reading.

**Chapter 1: A Shoulder to Cry On**

When Dr. Luke began spending so much time overseeing Captain Janeway's life, it was pretty annoying to her at first. However, the more time they spent together, the more she came to enjoy his constant presence in her life. She knew that he was only doing it because he was so concerned about her well-being, and she _also _knew that when he complained about how she never took proper care of herself, he was right. For the first time in a very long time, she had somebody looking after her and getting on her case to be good to herself, and frankly, it felt good. _Really _good. The more time they spent together, the closer they became. Now, Kathryn actually found herself looking forward to meals and holodeck time with Luke. Sure, he could be irritating and egotistical on the surface, but underneath all of that, he really was quite sensitive and endearing. And the night after her birthday party in the Mess Hall, she needed his more sensitive side.

It was five after eleven that night, and Kathryn was in Holodeck Two, running Luke's beach program. She had adjusted the time; it was now night and the moon and the stars lit the sky above her as she walked barefooted along the beach, allowing the waves to wash over her feet as she walked. She and Luke had gone jogging together on this holographic beach numerous times to fulfill the requirements of the exercise regimen he had personally designed for her. And during all of their jogging sessions together, they always talked and laughed and had so much fun. Luke always seemed to have that effect on her. No matter how hard of a day she'd had, spending time with him always lifted her spirits. Even now, in a time when she was so low, it was a comfort just to be in this setting, simply because it reminded her so much of Luke. Kathryn had been in there for about an hour already, and she continued walking the beach alone for several more minutes. Then the holodeck doors appeared, and Luke came in through the entrance.

"Hello, Captain," he said with a smile.

"Hello, Luke. What brings you in here this evening?"

"I couldn't sleep, so I thought I'd come to the holodeck and rehearse with Luisa, my holographic partner. I've got to keep my singing skills sharp for my opera recital next month. When I got here, I saw that you were running my beach program and I thought I'd come in and see what you were up to."

Kathryn shook her head and said, "I'm not doing anything important. I'll get out of here so you can rehearse with Luisa."

"Oh no, Captain. Please don't leave on my account. I much prefer your company over Luisa's. Divas like her are impossible to tolerate."

"Well, I doubt my company would be that much better. I'm not exactly at my best right now."

"I thought that something was wrong. You just didn't seem to be yourself at your birthday party this afternoon. You did a fine job of fooling everybody else with your Brave Captain Face, but over the past couple of months, I've learned to see beyond it. What is it, Captain? What's troubling you?"

"I'd rather not answer that," she told him as she began walking along the beach again, and he quickly fell into step alongside her.

"Why not?"

"Because answering that question would require me getting into some really personal stuff that I prefer to keep all nice and bottled up."

"You know it isn't healthy to bottle everything up all the time."

"I know; I know. It's just that…I'm the captain," she said, stopping dead in her tracks. Luke stopped walking as well, and he turned to face her. "I don't feel right about crying on a crewman's shoulder."

"We've been over this," he lovingly scolded her, and she smiled.

"I know."

"We're not just crewmen under your command that you are responsible for. We're your family out here. And because we're your family, it's perfectly okay for you to let us be there for you just as you are always there for us."

"I know."

"I realize it can be quite difficult to let someone in, even a friend you've known for years. Especially if you're the captain of a starship. I imagine you probably feel as though you have no choice but to be The Captain twenty-four-seven. But I want you to know that it's okay for you to let the people who care about you see you when you're feeling depressed or angry or vulnerable. No one will ever lose respect for you because of it. No one will think you're less of a captain if you let us see you when you're hurting."

"I know. You've told me this dozens of times before."

"And I'll keep saying it. I'll say it as many times as you need to hear it."

Kathryn put her hand on Luke's chest and smiled, and he smiled in return. She then said, "I really am glad you're here with me now. It makes me feel better to have you around."

After she brought her hand back down to her side, Luke said, "I'm very happy you feel that way, but we both know you're simply stalling." She knowingly laughed, and then he told her, "Out with it. What's bothering you?"

"You've told me many times over the past few months how much it hurt you when Seven began dating Commander Chakotay."

"Yes?"

"Well…let's just say that when those two got together, you weren't the only person who got hurt."

"Are you saying that…that you have feelings for Commander Chakotay?" Luke and a number of other crewmembers had suspected as much for a long time now, but no one ever actually came out and said anything.

"I've had feelings for him for years." There. Kathryn had said it. After all this time, she finally came out and said it.

"But you couldn't do anything about it because you're the captain," Luke said sympathetically. And his heart really did go out to her. He knew that as the captain, she truly was in a terrible position. Everybody on _Voyager _was free to find love except her.

"No," Kathryn sighed, and then both she and Luke resumed walking. "That was just an excuse. I've _always _used my rank as an excuse to keep my walls up." It was a stunning admission and Luke knew it. And he also knew that she was being brutally honest with herself.

"What is it precisely that you're so afraid of? What are you afraid will happen to you if you lower your walls and allow a man on your crew to get close?"

Kathryn let out a long sigh, and then she told him, "You know I lost my father and my first fiancé years ago in an accident on Tau Ceti Prime."

"I'm aware of that."

"Even though it was a long time ago, I never really recovered from that terrible experience. I never told you this during all our discussions about Ahni Jetal, but the truth is, even though you felt so guilty for choosing to save Harry Kim over her, I always admired you for having the courage _to _make a choice. At least one of them survived because you had the courage to choose someone. Both my father and Justin are dead today because I didn't have the courage you had. I hesitated. I couldn't make a choice. And because of my hesitation, I lost them both."

"My decision to save Harry Kim wasn't courage, Captain. It was _favoritism. _I chose to save Harry Kim over Ahni Jetal because I was closer to him than I was to her. End of story. Had I had to choose between Harry Kim and Tom Paris, we would have lost them both that day because I never would have been able to make a choice like that. And _no one _could ever possibly choose between saving their father and saving their fiancé, Captain. No one could ever be expected to make that kind of a choice."

"I know that logically. I know that in my head. Trouble is, no one's ever been able to get the message across to my heart. Even after all these years, I still feel responsible for their deaths. The weight of it is…absolutely crushing. And I always knew that if I allowed myself the luxury of having a relationship with Chakotay and something happened to him during our journey home, while he was an officer under _my _command, someone that _I _was personally responsible for…"

"You would blame yourself, just as you've always blamed yourself for the deaths of your father and your first fiancé. You would experience that same crushing, devastating pain all over again."

"Yes," Kathryn whispered. "Do you remember several years ago when Chakotay and I caught that terrible virus and you all had to leave us behind on that planet that shielded us from its effects?"

"Of course I do."

Again, Kathryn and Luke stopped walking, and she turned to face him. "We were alone together on that planet for six weeks, Luke. It took some time but I finally began to forget my rank, I finally began to lower my walls, and I started letting him in. We named that planet New Earth. It was paradise for us. It was so beautiful. So perfect. By the time you all came back with the Vidiian medicine to cure us, part of me was actually heartbroken that you'd returned. Had you not come back for us, I would've completely surrendered to what was happening between me and Chakotay. I would've been overjoyed to spend the rest of my life in that perfect paradise with Chakotay by my side. But after returning to _Voyager_, there was no way we could keep tossing rank aside the way we did on that planet. Correction. There was no way _I _could keep tossing rank aside. If I did that, if I let Chakotay in like I desperately wanted to, I knew I would run the risk of…"

"Of repeating what you went through on Tau Ceti Prime."

"Exactly. For a long time after that experience with Chakotay, I kept trying to cling to that faint hope that I would be able to be with him after we finally got home and he was no longer serving under my command. Even though I knew that it was an impossible dream, that there was never any real chance of it actually coming true, I just couldn't bring myself fully let go of it. I never actually expected Chakotay to wait all this time for me, and I certainly don't hold it against him for starting a relationship with Seven. He had every right to move on. But it still hurt to see the two of them so happy together at my birthday party today. It still hurts to lose the dream."

"Believe me, I know exactly how you feel. The one thing that once made their relationship so painful for me is the fact that I had no one to blame for it but myself. I had hundreds of opportunities to make my true feelings known to Seven in the years before she began dating Commander Chakotay, but I kept everything to myself. I didn't say a word. For a long time, I really was haunted by the question, 'Could I be with Seven today had I told her the truth sooner?' I imagine you're going through something similar."

"Very similar."

"I know it's probably much harder on you, though. You lost your first fiancé on Tau Ceti Prime. You lost your second fiancé when we got hurled through space into the Delta Quadrant. And now, to add insult to injury, you've lost Commander Chakotay. And life in the Delta Quadrant certainly hasn't been a bed of roses. Life's been terribly cruel to you, Captain, and that's an understatement."

"I'm not looking for pity, Luke."

"I don't pity you, Captain. On the contrary, I…I'm blown away by you. As is every other member of your crew. When I put myself in your place and I start to really think about everything you've endured throughout your life, especially over the past eight years in the Delta Quadrant, I am astounded by your strength and courage and perseverance. You're an extraordinary woman, Kathryn Janeway."

"Thank you," she whispered, fighting off tears.

"It's true. I wish there was something I could do to help ease the pain you're feeling. For what it's worth, I want you to know that I would make all your pain vanish in a heartbeat if I could."

"I know you would," Kathryn said softly with a half-smile. "But I don't expect you to solve my problems for me, and I don't expect you to have all the answers. It just feels good to know how much you care. Even though I wanted to avoid it, I think I really did need a shoulder to cry on."

"My shoulder's always here for you, Captain. You know that."

"I know," said Kathryn, and then she gave Luke a big hug. "Thanks for being there for me tonight."

When the embrace ended, Luke told her, "I was more than happy to do it. I just hope I made you feel a little better somehow."

"Oh, you did. Believe me, you did."

"I'm glad."

"Well, now that all that's out of the way, I'll say goodnight and get out of your hair."

"You are _never _'in my hair,' Captain. I don't have any hair for you _to _be in," Luke joked, and Kathryn laughed.

"Still, though, I know you want to get to your rehearsal. You don't want to keep Luisa waiting."

"Oh, let her stay in the memory buffer a while longer," said Luke with a dismissive wave of his hand. "She'll be fine."

Kathryn laughed again and said, "No, I'd better get to bed. I've got a lot of work to catch up on tomorrow."

"Of course. Sleep well, Captain."

"I will. And you have fun with Luisa."

"Right," said Luke as he rolled his eyes.

Kathryn chuckled a bit at that, and then she left the holodeck and went back to her quarters to get some sleep.


	3. Louise Wood

**A/N: **See Chapter 1 for Disclaimer.

**Chapter Summary: **With the help of Mark and Leah, Louise is able to make the right decision; Louise discusses some of her deepest fears with Mark.

**Chapter 3: Louise Wood**

Early the next morning, Mark called Leah, who had the day off from work, and asked her to meet him at the Haven Lake Library. After the librarian helped him find a number of books about abortion, Mark sat down at a table in one of the private rooms with Leah and started looking through them.

"Leah," he said as he started flipping through the pages of one of the tower of books on the round table, "I need your help."

"Of course, Mark," she said kindly. "What do you need me to do?"

"Last night after you left, Louise asked me to come here and bring her every book I could find about abortion. She wants to do her own research. And she specifically wants books that represent the pro-life position. She says she's already heard from the pro-choice side from all her doctors and nurses for the past two weeks, and now she wants to know why the pro-life people feel the way they do. She says she feels like she isn't being given all the facts and she says she needs as much information as possible before she can make her decision."

"That makes sense. So what is it that you need my help with?"

"We can't let Louise see what's in the books written by pro-life authors. Leah, I was a medic back in my army days. I may not be a doctor, but I do have enough medical training to know exactly what happens to an unborn baby in an abortion," said Mark, and in the next moment, he found a graphic, disturbing picture of a dismembered baby who had been aborted at twelve weeks. He then showed it to Leah, who suddenly gasped in horror. "_That _is abortion, Leah," he told her as tears filled her eyes. "And we can't ever let Louise know. We've got to protect her from the truth. We've got to protect her from her own enormous heart that's always putting other people ahead of herself. You know as well as I do that the nanosecond Louise sees a picture like this, she's going to choose to have the baby. And you also know that given the physical shape she's in, if she goes through with the pregnancy and the trauma of childbirth, there's a good chance she won't survive. We can't let that happen. We can't let Louise make a decision that could get her killed. We're the only family Louise has got, and it's our job to look out for her best interests."

"I understand how you feel, Mark. I really do. The thought of something happening to Louise scares me too. But there's another side to all of this. I've been running my support group for rape victims for the past four years, and in that time, I've gotten to know a number of women who, like Louise, have gotten pregnant by their rapists. Some of them chose to have their babies, and some didn't. But with every woman I ever spoke to about this, the outcome was always the same. The women who had their babies were able to overcome the fact that their babies were conceived by their rapists, and they were able to love their babies and even feel gratitude for them. None of them regretted bringing their children into the world. And every single woman I've spoken with through the years who has chosen to have an abortion has deeply regretted it. They've all said the same thing: that when the abortion was taking place, they _knew_, they could _feel_ it, that a human life was being ripped from their body, and that when the procedure was over, they knew beyond a doubt that they had committed murder. Many of them still have nightmares about it to this very day. This is the side to abortion the feminists and the pro-choice people utterly refuse to talk about, but it's a cold, hard fact that many women suffer from depression and other severe psychological problems after having an abortion. There are often terrible psychological consequences for women who abort. Mark, I'm telling you, based on all my experiences with women who have had abortions, if you try to keep the truth about abortion from Louise, you won't be doing her any favors."

Mark then let out a long, frustrated sigh and said, "So if she goes through with the pregnancy, she puts her health and her life on the line. And if she has an abortion, she could be psychologically traumatized by it every day for as long as she lives. Basically, what you're saying is, Louise is damned if she does and damned if she doesn't."

Leah shook her head and said, "It doesn't have to be that way. If Louise does decide to have her baby, you and I can see to it that she constantly receives the best medical care possible. We'll take very good care of Louise. We'll be there for her every step of the way. Like you said, you and I are her family, and we'll do everything we possibly can to help her."

Deeply worried about Louise, Mark simply let out a long sigh, closed his eyes, and rubbed his now throbbing temple.

* * *

After struggling and wrestling with it for much of the day, Mark finally showed up at the hospital to see Louise at four o'clock that afternoon with the books she had requested. Mark had been deeply reluctant to bring them to Louise, of course, but after doing a lot of hard thinking about what Leah had said to him at the library earlier that morning, he realized that she was right. Louise truly did deserve to have all the facts before she made her decision. When Mark came into Louise's hospital room with all the books he'd checked out from the library, he was relieved to see that Leah was also there. He knew it was probably best for both of them to be there with Louise when she started looking at what was in the books he was bringing her.

"Hi sweetheart," Mark said kindly after walking into Louise's hospital room that day, and then he gave her a kiss on the cheek. "I'm sorry I'm so late."

"That's alright, love. It's good to see you," said Louise.

"Good to see you, Mark," Leah told him.

"It's good to see you ladies too," said Mark, and then he set all the books down on Louise's overbed table. "Uh…Louise…I brought you the books you asked for, but before you start looking through them, you need to brace yourself. Many of the pictures inside these books are very graphic, and they're deeply disturbing."

Louise nodded slowly, and after taking in a deep breath and exhaling, she hesitantly picked up one of the books and started flipping through it. A few seconds later, she turned to a page with one of the horrifically disturbing pictures Mark was talking about. It was a picture of a ten week old baby that had been dismembered in an abortion.

"Dear Lord," Louise cried as soon as she saw it, and she immediately shut the book and broke down crying. Leah quickly took Louise into her arms and held her while she sobbed, and Mark laid a gentle hand on Louise's shoulder. "I can't do it, Leah! I just can't do it! I can't do something so heartless and cruel! I can't do anything to hurt my own baby. I can't! _I won't!_"

"It's okay, Louise," Leah whispered while Louise continued to sob. "It's okay. It's okay. You don't have to do anything you don't want to do."

"That's right, sweetheart," Mark said gently while rubbing Louise's back. "Nobody's going to force you to do anything you don't want to do."

"The only reason I was even considering it was because everybody here at the hospital has been telling me that I was only carrying a blob of tissue; that it hadn't formed into a real human baby yet. And I was afraid that if I let it develop into a baby and bring it into the world, I wouldn't be able to give it everything it needed. I was so scared that my baby would have a terrible life and it would be all my fault. But after seeing that picture, I know better. I know now that I'm not carrying a blob of tissue that's going to develop into a baby later on; I know that I'm carrying a real baby inside of me right here and now. And maybe I will be bringing my baby into a bad situation. Maybe I will be giving my baby a bad life. But even a bad life is better than no life at all," Louise said as she continued to cry.

"Your baby isn't going to have a bad life, Louise. It's going to have a wonderful life with the kindest, warmest, gentlest, most generous mother in the whole world," Leah assured her while holding her tight.

"That's right," Mark agreed. "And you know we'll do everything in our power to help you. You're not in this alone."

"No you're not," said Leah. "I know this is so very frightening, Louise, but we're here for you and your baby. We'll get you through this. Just hang onto us."

Louise nodded, and then she and Leah let go of each other and Louise grabbed a tissue from the tissue box on her nightstand and started drying her eyes.

"Thank you. Thank you both so much. I'd be so lost without the two of you."

"We'd be lost without you too, honey," Mark said softly.

"So, you've made your decision. We're having a baby," Leah said with a smile.

"Yeah. I guess we are," Louise agreed.

"Looks like I'm going to be very busy over the next few months," Mark said with a kind smile.

"What do you mean?" asked Louise.

"Well, it's like Leah said. We're having a baby. That means I've got a lot of prep work to do. I'm going to have to build your little one a nursery."

"And while Mark's building, I guess I'll have to force myself to go out and do some serious, hardcore baby shopping," Leah kidded.

"Hmph! Force yourself, my foot! You're the worst shopaholic I ever met! Leah, if it were up to you, you'd buy out every store in town at least twice a week!" Mark quipped.

In that moment, Louise's eyes filled with fresh tears as she told her friends, "You two are so wonderful. I…I just don't know what to say. I don't know where my baby and I would be without you guys."

"It's no big deal, Louise," Leah told her kindly. "I know that if Mark or I were in your shoes, you'd do everything you could to help us."

"You're right. I would."

"And it's only right for us to help you now," Leah insisted. "That's what families do."

"And it means everything to me to have one. Especially now," Louise told Mark and Leah, and they both responded by giving Louise the warmest, longest hug.

* * *

Over the next several weeks, Louise's doctors and nurses remained painfully unsupportive and unhelpful, and their attitude proved to be a real obstacle in her overall recovery. Finally one day in January when Louise was almost six months pregnant, Mark came into her hospital room and found her crying because a nurse had just bitten her head off, and he was beyond furious. Mark immediately stormed into Dr. Henderson's office, yelling a string of four-letter words that cannot be repeated.

"I've had it, doctor! Enough is enough! I am through with watching you and your nurses constantly disrespect, insult, and even bully Louise! I have a lot of money, and I'm going to use every dime of it to get Louise checked out of this hospital and bring her home with me _today._"

"Louise isn't remotely ready to leave. She's going to need constant monitoring throughout the rest of her pregnancy, and then after she has the baby, she'll need to go through rehab so she can learn how to function in life from a wheelchair. That is, _if _she even _survives _the rest of her pregnancy, not to mention the birth."

"You see? It's stupid, underhanded, hurtful little remarks like the one you just made. _That's_ the reason I'm getting Louise out of here as soon as possible. Louise is already going through so much. She's scared to death, and the _last _thing she needs right now is you and your staff taking a bunch of unnecessary, disrespectful jabs at her. _She does not need _you pointing it out every other second how risky this pregnancy is and how she might not survive giving birth. _She already knows that._ This was probably the hardest choice Louise has ever had to make in her whole life, and at the end of the day, she made the decision that her conscience told her to make. She deserves respect for that, not a bunch of verbal abuse. She also deserves respect for surviving the closest experience to hell that there is on this earth. Louise and I didn't call the Forty-Niner's basement 'the hellhole' for nothing. And Louise _did not _survive the hellhole just so she could be sent to some hospital where she has to be surrounded by coldhearted doctors and nurses who can't find it within themselves to treat this remarkable lady with the humanity and compassion she deserves. I'm getting Louise out of here and I'm taking her home with me, and I'm going to hire her a whole team of doctors and nurses who _will _give her the support and the respect she deserves!"

Mark then stormed out of the doctors office amidst all of his objections in the background, and he left the hospital and got on the phone and started making a number of calls.

* * *

Two days later, Mark made good on his threats to Dr. Henderson to completely remove Louise from his care, and he brought her home with him. Mark had inherited his father's enormous five-bedroom house on the outskirts of Haven Lake. Nestled in the greenery of the beautiful Haven Lake countryside, going there felt like escaping into a private paradise. Although it was winter, the snow-covered evergreen trees scattered throughout Mark's gardens still made Mark's home a breathtaking sea of green that Louise instantly fell in love with. And that was just the outside. The inside of Mark's house was filled with fine art and family pictures and exquisite furniture and it was even more breathtaking than the outside.

"Mark, you told me you had a big house, but you never told me you lived in a palace!" Louise gasped as a nurse pushed her wheelchair through Mark's living room.

"And no palace is complete without its queen, my dear. Welcome home," Mark said lovingly, following just behind Louise and the nurse with a smile.

Moments later, Louise was surprised to discover that Mark had had an elevator installed in his home especially for her so she could access the second floor of the house with ease. Mark had also had every bathroom of the house rebuilt specifically to accommodate Louise's needs. Rails were installed by all the toilets and the toilets were considerably higher than average, and there were special showers and bathtubs as well which made it safe and easy for Louise to take either a bath or a shower sitting down, all of which the nurse told Louise about. When the nurse wheeled Louise into her room, again, she was surprised and deeply touched by everything Mark had done for her. It looked like a very large yet surprisingly beautiful hospital room. Unlike a typical hospital room, Louise's room wasn't cold and sterile. There was a hospital bed there for Louise and all the necessary medical equipment, but Mark and Estelle, the sixty-two-year-old housekeeper who had been with him for years, had gone the extra mile to add personal touches and make it seem more like home. The one thing that meant the most to Louise was that there was a bassinet beside the hospital bed and a special section of the room that was devoted specifically to her baby. There was an enormous alcove filled with baby clothes and toys and diapers, as well as rocking chair. Louise was truly overwhelmed as she took it all in.

"I told Leah to work fast," Mark explained as Louise stared at the mini-nursery, on the verge of tears because of all Mark had done.

"Mark, I don't know what to say," Louise gasped. "This is incredible."

"I'm glad you like it."

"_Like _it? I _love _it. I can't believe you went to all this trouble for me."

"It wasn't any trouble at all," Mark said kindly, and then he kissed the top of her head.

Several minutes later, after Mark had helped Louise into bed, Estelle came into the room and Mark introduced her. She was almost six feet tall with gray hair and she was heavyset, and she typically had a very intimidating demeanor. However, underneath her tough exterior, she had the most tender heart anybody could ever hope to find, and Louise could easily see that tenderness shining through her big blue eyes. Mark had told Estelle all about everything Louise had gone through over the past several months and naturally, she was overcome with compassion for her.

After Louise and Estelle got acquainted, Dr. Rick Davis and Maggie Sanders came into the room and introduced themselves. Dr. Davis was sixty-eight and had retired from his practice three years earlier, and he'd agreed to stay in Mark's house and personally oversee Louise's health needs throughout the rest of her pregnancy. He was a tall, heavyset black man with glasses and a head full of gray hair, and he had very kind eyes. Maggie was a twenty-eight-year-old OB nurse whom Mark had also hired to move in and help take care of Louise and her baby during the rest of her pregnancy. She was a short, slim, beautiful young black woman and she was as sweet as she could be to Louise.

The next several weeks raced by. Louise remained hooked up to a heart monitor and Dr. Davis ran frequent EKGs on her to keep a close check on her heart rhythm, and both he and Maggie monitored her pregnancy very closely, as did his colleague who visited Louise several times a week, Dr. Andrea Myer, who was an obstetrician specializing in high-risk pregnancies. She was a tall, slim black lady who was as beautiful outside as she was inside. Both doctors and Maggie were very kind, warm, and sensitive, and they couldn't possibly have been more supportive and respectful of Louise, which was an enormous help to her to say the least. Leah and a number of women from her support group also came over to visit both Louise and Mark quite frequently, and they helped them tremendously in working through the emotional aftermath of all the physical and sexual trauma they suffered while they were in the hellhole. Thanks to everyone's great help and support, for the first time, Louise was finally beginning to feel that maybe, _just maybe_, everything was going to work out alright for her and her baby after all.

However, one afternoon in late March when Mark had taken Louise to Haven Creek for a picnic lunch, Louise confessed to Mark one of her deepest fears that had been troubling her for quite some time. Even though she had finally begun to feel a lot better about things, there were still some issues in the back of her mind that she was pretty frightened about.

"I'm scared, Mark," Louise told him in her ever deep, booming voice as they both watched the tiny creek flowing through the woods.

"What is it, sweetheart? What are you afraid of?" he asked kindly, holding her hand. Mark was sitting down in front of Louise in an outdoor folding chair he'd brought with him, and his blue eyes were locked with her dark eyes.

"You know the baby's due on the twenty-eighth of April, exactly one month from today."

"Yeah?"

"And I can't stop thinking about the birth."

"Yeah," Mark said sympathetically while brushing his thumb across Louise's knuckles. "I know, honey. I know. If I were in your shoes, I'd be pretty scared, too. But you've got to remember that we're all going to be right there with you. Dr. Myer is going to be there with you in the delivery room the whole time, not to mention Leah, Maggie, and Yours Truly. We're going to be right there every step of the way."

"I know that, and it means the world to me. It really does. I'm not afraid of the pain. After surviving all the rape, beatings, and torture in the hellhole, I know I can handle physical pain when I have to."

"Don't worry, Louise. Dr. Myer will give you an epidural the very moment you need one. They're going to do everything they can to keep you as comfortable as possible. It's going to be alright."

"Well like I said, it's not the pain I'm worried about."

"What are you worried about?"

"My heart. Mark, we both know that my heart never really recovered from that cardiac contusion, and on top of that, one of my heart valves is damaged. You know as well as I do that there is a real chance that my heart could give out in the delivery room. I might not survive giving birth."

"Sweetheart, you're going to be fine. You're going to be just fine. I promise you. We're all going to take very good care of you. We're not going to let anything happen to you."

"But something _could_ happen to me, Mark. This is a very high-risk pregnancy and something unexpected could happen. Something could go wrong very easily. There have been a lot of advances in modern medicine over the past several decades, but there are still women in this country today, women a lot younger and healthier than I am, who die in childbirth because of unexpected complications. And if there are complications for me in the delivery room and I die, what's going to happen to my baby? Who'll take care of it if I'm not here?"

"Nothing's going to happen to you, Louise," Mark insisted. "I promise you that everything's going to be alright. But should the unthinkable happen, you know I'll always take care of your baby. I'd never let anything happen to your little one."

"Do you really mean that?"

"Of course I do. Listen, if it'll help put your mind at ease, I'll call my lawyer and have him draw up the necessary paperwork to name me as your child's legal guardian in the event of your death – which is _not _going to happen, by the way."

"Oh Mark, would you really do that?"

"Of course."

Louise then gave Mark a fierce hug and planted a firm kiss on his cheek, and she told him, "I don't know what I'd ever do without you. You're always right there when I need you."

"I always will be, honey," he assured her. "I always will be. You ought to know that by now."

"But still, I can't thank you enough. You really have taken a big load off my mind."

"That's what friends are for."

"You are my best friend," Louise told Mark honestly. "Leah and her support group are wonderful, but not even they understand me the way that you do."

"Believe me, Louise; the feelings are mutual. I don't know…I've always been kind of a lone wolf ever since I came home from Korea all those years ago. War…it just…does something to a person that most people cannot understand. And the hellhole was a war in and of itself. You and I are the only people who can really understand how hard it is."

"Yeah, I think that's true. There are so many things about life, about surviving, that only you and I can ever truly understand. You know, ever since you brought me here, I've just felt like I'm locked away from the rest of the world, sheltered in my own private paradise with you, and I absolutely love it. After the hellhole, I just want to hide away from the rest of the world forever and never come out."

"I know exactly how you feel. After everything I've been through, I'm not a very big fan of the world, either. I know what it's like to be all shaken up inside and need to have a nice, quiet place where you can just be safe and get your bearings again. And I want you to know that you're not a mere guest in my home, Louise. I told you before that you were my family and I meant it. My home is your home now. Forever."

"That means everything to me, Mark. It really does," Louise said softly as she kissed his cheek again. "Thank you. Once the baby's born and I've gone through rehab and learned how to navigate the world from a wheelchair, I'll be in a better position to find work and get on my own two feet financially." (Louise would inevitably have to go through rehab and work with physical and occupational therapists in order to learn how to live life as independently as possible from her wheelchair, but Dr. Davis and Dr. Myer agreed that it was best for Louise to get through the rest of her pregnancy first and worry about rehab later.)

"Your work is going to be to take care of your baby and your health. Let me worry about the rest."

"Well, we can both worry about it later. Right now, I've got to start trying to prepare myself inside for the arrival of this little one," Louise said while patting her stomach.

"Yeah," Mark said with a laugh. "You know, back when it was just me and Estelle, things were pretty dull around the house. I highly doubt that'll be the case when your little one comes into the world. I have a feeling things are going to get very interesting very quickly."

"So have I," Louise chuckled. "You know, now, I really can't thank God enough for this baby. It really has been an enormous blessing in disguise. I know you're an atheist and you don't agree with the part about me thanking God, but that's just a subject where you and I will have to agree to disagree."

"Well Louise, you and I don't have to agree on every single subject in order to love each other."

"No, we don't," Louise said with a smile.

"If I may ask, why do you feel now that this baby is such a blessing?"

"Because this baby forces me to move on with my life and continue pressing forward. If I weren't going to become a mother in a few weeks, if I didn't have my little one to think about, I would just get so lost in a sea of pain and depression. After the hellhole, I would've been so devastated inside that I probably wouldn't be able to function at all in the everyday world. I probably wouldn't even try. This baby gives me a reason to try. Thanks to her, I don't have the option to give in and give up. _I have _to push through all of this and keep going because I know my baby's depending on me. I don't get the option to just not be there for her, especially if she's a special needs baby."

"You keep saying 'her.' Is there something you know that I don't?"

"No. It's just a feeling I keep getting."

"Well first of all, I know that the doctors have warned you that there's a chance of birth defects because of medication they gave you before we all knew you were pregnant, but I don't want you to worry Your baby is going to be just fine. And second, I have to admit that for selfish reasons, I hope you're wrong about the gender."

"Why?"

"You know Leah's brother-in-law Jack owns the bar downtown, and he's giving a free case of beer to the winner of the baby pool."

"Baby pool?"

"Yeah. Leah, her husband, her brother-in-law, Dr. Davis, Dr. Myer, Maggie, Estelle, and I have all made bets on the date, time, gender, and weight of your baby, and the person who gets the closest wins the case of beer. I bet that you would have the baby on the fourteenth of April at eleven o'clock and that it would be a boy and weigh eight pounds even."

"But you know I'm not due until the twenty-eighth of April."

"I know, but Dr. Myer told me that we can expect the baby to come any time from two weeks before to two weeks after your due date. I'm betting that your baby's going to be an early bird."

Louise laughed then and shook her head at her best friend, and she said, "Boy, you've just got it all planned out, haven't you? The date and time I give birth. My baby's gender. Even my baby's weight."

"Of course. As your best friend, it's my personal responsibility to plan these things out in advance for you," Mark kidded, and again, Louise laughed. Then in the following moments, her expression turned more serious once again.

"Again, I know we're not going to agree on this, but I really do believe this baby's a miracle and that the Lord has big plans for her. Back when I was in the hospital, the doctors and nurses told me a number of times that they were astounded that my pregnancy lasted, given all the physical trauma my body had been through. They were all amazed that I didn't have a miscarriage because of all this. My baby's had the deck stacked against her from day one, yet despite it all, she's still held on."

"Well, I personally believe that _he _has held on through it all, not because of some so-called miracle from a deity, but because he's strong like his mother. And speaking of _him_, what's _his_ name going to be?"

"I haven't really made up my mind about the baby's name yet. I do still have some time left before _she _comes, you know."

"I don't mean _his _first name. I mean _his _last name. I don't think you ought to wait much longer to choose a last name for yourself. I know we were all hoping that after enough time had passed, you would finally get at least some of your memory back and remember your last name, but I just don't think that's going to happen, sweetheart."

"Yeah, I know you're right," Louise sighed. "I can't stay 'Louise Doe' forever. I wonder what I could call myself," she mused as she took in all the green scenery of the beautiful woods around her. And in the next moment, it came to her. "I've got it!" she said aloud.

"What?"

"Louise Wood. I'll call myself Louise Wood. I was looking around thinking just now about how one of the things I love the most about Haven Lake is the beautiful woods around here. I just love Haven Creek and the woods around this area. I love it when you bring me here for picnics. It's when you bring me out here to the woods of Haven Creek that I feel the most at peace. So it makes sense that my name should be Louise Wood. It fits."

Mark smiled then and said, "Yeah, I think so too. The name 'Louise Wood' really does fit you." A couple of seconds later, Mark stuck out his hand and shook hands with Louise and told her, "It's a great pleasure to meet you, Louise Wood." Louise responded by giving him a simple, contented smile, pleased with the new last name she had chosen for herself.


	4. Sinus Rhythm

**A/N: **See Chapter 1 for Disclaimer.

**Chapter Summary: **Louise has a deep discussion with Estelle, and then she begins having contractions.

**Chapter 4: Sinus Rhythm**

One week later, Louise began having Braxton-Hicks contractions or false labor pains, and Dr. Davis and Maggie explained to Louise that they were her body's way of practicing for real labor. Louise stayed strong and pushed through them like the trouper that she was. However, when Estelle went into Louise's room at a quarter past nine on the night of the fourteenth of April to check on her, she realized that Louise's false labor pains weren't so false after all.

"Hey there honey," Estelle said kindly as she pulled up a chair and sat down beside Louise's bed. (And it was _not _a small thing for Estelle of all people to call somebody 'honey'!)

"Hi Estelle," Louise responded in a tired voice.

"I know it's after nine but I saw your light was still on so I thought I'd come in and check on the two of you," she said while patting Louise's round stomach.

"Thank you, Estelle. I really appreciate that. We're hanging in there."

"Good. You know, Louise, that I'm a pretty tough old bird. I don't like getting all mushy or sentimental or anything like that. But honey, I've just got to tell you how much I admire you."

"Really?"

Estelle then took Louise's hand in hers, gave it an affectionate squeeze, and told her, "Absolutely. Honey, if I were in your shoes, I would have lost my mind a long time ago. You're the most courageous lady I ever met."

"Thank you. That's quite a compliment."

"It's the truth. Many women in your shoes would not have had your kind of courage. You are one gutsy lady and I really do admire you. I wish my niece would have made the decision you made. A couple of years ago, she got pregnant by her boyfriend and when he found out there was a baby on the way, he left her. She was still in college at the time, and the last thing she wanted was for anything to stop her from getting her college degree. I begged her to put the baby up for adoption instead of killing it in the womb, but she wouldn't listen. She had the abortion, and she's regretted it ever since. Today, she's an alcoholic. She uses booze to try and keep herself numb to the pain. She's a skeleton, a mere shadow, of her former self. It's so tragic.

"I sure wish all those pro-abortion feminists putting all those false ideas in her head would've had the guts to be honest with her about what happens to a woman _after _she has an abortion. They tell women that they're only carrying fetal tissue and not an actual human being so they won't realize that when they go to have an abortion, they're really committing murder. They call an unborn child a 'fetus' to cover up the fact that it's really a baby. They say a woman is 'having an abortion' or 'terminating her pregnancy' to cover it up that she's really going to a doctor and paying him to murder her baby, to _literally _suction it apart or tear it apart limb by limb. They never state what it is they're actually doing to babies because if they didn't hide behind words like 'abortion' and 'termination' and 'fetus,' people would know it's morally wrong. And after young women like my niece buy into their lies and go through with having their unborn children tortured to death, and the pro-choice activists have gotten their way and the doctors and nurses at abortion clinics have made their money, are any of them there when the heartache and the depression and the devastation sets in? No. Scared, vulnerable young women who have been lied to and suckered into committing this atrocity are left to deal with the aftermath of it all by themselves."

"I'm so sorry about your niece. I really can relate to what she must have gone through. When I was in the hospital in Boston and I first learned I was pregnant, I was surrounded by people who had an agenda that they were all trying to shove down my throat. I had doctors, nurses, and even the hospital social worker making me feel like I was the dumbest, craziest, most irresponsible person that ever lived for even _thinking _of going through with the pregnancy. They all tried so hard to push me into having an abortion, a.k.a. killing my baby in cold blood."

"Of course they did. They wanted to make money. There are a lot of people who make a lot of money from the baby-murdering industry. And that terrible woman who founded Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger, was as evil as they come. She advocated abortion because she felt that poor people, disabled people, and black people shouldn't reproduce. She was racist to her core, and she wanted to kill off as many black people as possible. And it's not a coincidence that there are far more abortion clinics set up in black neighborhoods and in poorer neighborhoods in this country than there are in white suburban neighborhoods. It's getting to where the most dangerous place for a black baby to be is in the womb." In the next moment, Estelle lovingly put her hand on Louise's stomach and told her, "You've done a wonderful thing, Louise. I know you were deeply afraid when you chose to have this baby. I know this is perhaps the most frightening situation a woman could ever face. But even though it probably feels pretty terrifying at times, don't second-guess yourself. You did the right thing. You chose to show mercy to your baby. You chose to protect her and keep her safe," said Estelle, who by now was well aware that Louise had a strong feeling that she was carrying a girl. "And," she continued, "I want you to know that I respect you so much for that."

Louise smiled, put her hand on top of Estelle's, and stared at her big round stomach for several long moments, thinking hard about the precious little life that was living there. She then told Estelle, "I can't imagine a mother _not_ wanting to show mercy to her own child. You're right that I have been pretty scared through this whole thing. I worry sometimes that because I'm disabled now, I won't be able to give my little one everything she needs. But I do know that every day of my life, I'm going to give her everything I possibly can, and I do believe with all my heart that the good Lord will pick up where I leave off as long as I trust Him. And I also know that as long as I have you and Mark and Leah, the two of us are going to be just fine."

"You never have to worry about that, You'll always have us," Estelle assured her, and then Louise let go of Estelle's hand and she removed it from her stomach. In the next moment, Estelle walked up to Louise's nightstand, where there was a big crystal vase filled with a bouquet of pink, white, yellow, and red tulips. (Mark was avid gardener, and both his front and back yards were filled with roses, azaleas, tulips, and other flowers, and it was no secret that of all the flowers, the tulips were his favorite. There were vases of Mark's tulips in almost every room of the house.) "You know, Louise," said Estelle as she touched the petals of one of the pink tulips in the vase, "in a way, your baby is like a tulip. You plant tulip bulbs in the wintertime, when everything is cold and barren and harsh. But when springtime comes, those tulip bulbs that originated in coldness will bloom into vibrant, beautiful flowers. Your baby may have originated in the cruelest possible environment, but in the end, when the time is right, she'll bloom into something wonderful and beautiful. She'll be the biggest blessing to all the people around her. I believe that. I really do."

"Thank you, Estelle. I believe it too," Louise said with a soft smile.

However, a few moments later, Louise was _not _smiling. All of the sudden, she was holding her stomach and moaning. _Loudly. _When the contraction finally passed about a minute later, Estelle said, "You just hang in there, honey. I'll go assemble the cavalry."

"You don't have to do that," Louise sighed as she laid her head back against one of the pillows behind her. "It's just another one of these blasted false labor pains I've been having here lately."

"Honey, I may be an over-the-hill, unmarried spinster, but I was with my sister during the births of all four of her children, and I know enough about labor pains to know that if you're making _that_ much noise, it is _not _false labor. This is it, sweetie. It's showtime. Like I said, I'll go assemble the troops. I'll be right back," Estelle told her, and then she quickly left to get the cavalry.

* * *

A couple of minutes later, Mark was _not _pleased to find that his cantankerous housekeeper was shaking him out of a deep and pleasant sleep. Once she finally had awakened him, he turned over in bed and glared at her.

"You're cruising towards the unemployment line, you old battleax!" Mark fussed. Mark and Estelle had been the best of friends ever since she first came to work for him twenty-five years ago, and they were constantly feuding and fussing and taking jabs at each other, but it was always in good fun, and it was always obvious that underneath their bickering, they really did love one another as family.

"Well you're cruising towards the nursing home a whole lot faster than I am towards the unemployment line! And when you reach the nursing home, you'll still need me to come take care of you because the nurses there won't be able to stand your irritable, obstinate old self!"

"Did anybody ever tell you what a pushy, annoying, overbearing pain in the butt you are?"

"Did anybody ever teach you the expression, 'Talk about the pot calling the kettle black'?"

"You are about two seconds away from getting fired! You ought to know by now that if a housekeeper wants to keep her job, she never, ever, _ever _interrupts her boss's beauty sleep!"

"And you sure do need it!"

"Estelle, if you don't haul that fat butt of yours out of my bedroom _now_, you can consider yourself fired!"

"Whatever you say. If you want to miss the birth of Louise's baby, it's no skin off my nose. As a matter of fact, it's probably for the best. If the first thing that poor little baby sees is your ugly old face, it'll probably give her irreversible brain damage!"

"Wait a minute! Are you telling me that the baby's coming?"

"That's exactly what I'm telling you. Louise just went into labor, you stupid old fool!"

The instant Estelle said that, Mark jumped out of bed and almost tripped as he raced out of his bedroom.

* * *

Dr. Davis and Maggie examined Louise and determined that she was five centimeters dilated and ninety percent effaced, and afterwards, Mark called Dr. Myer and told her to meet them at the hospital. Although Dr. Davis assured Mark that they still had plenty of time to get Louise to the hospital, he put the petal to the metal and made a typical thirty-minute drive in ten minutes. They left the house at nine-thirty-five, and at a quarter 'til ten, Mark was squealing tires into the emergency room parking lot of one of the bigger hospitals in Boston (a different one from the one Louise had been in before). Louise was quickly settled into one of the delivery rooms, and shortly after that, her water broke. Dr. Myer soon arrived and performed another examination and brought in the anesthesiologist to administer an epidural. Leah arrived at five past ten, and having Leah, Maggie, and especially Mark there with her was a great comfort to Louise.

Mercifully, over the next hour, Louise's labor progressed very quickly and at a quarter 'til eleven, Dr. Myer informed Louise and Mark and the others that she was fully dilated and effaced and ready to start pushing.

"That's wonderful news!" Mark said aloud. "Just think, Louise. If you can give birth within the next fifteen minutes and you have a boy, I'll win me a whole case of free beer!" (Mark, Leah, Dr. Myer, and Maggie were all there with Louise in the delivery room wearing green scrubs, but none of them were wearing surgical masks and Louise could see all their faces.)

Dr. Myer chuckled and Louise, Leah and Maggie rolled their eyes at all of Mark's silliness.

"I'll try very hard to accommodate you," Louise said sarcastically.

"Thanks, hon! I appreciate that!" Mark said jokingly, and again, Louise rolled her eyes.

"Tell me, Louise. What have you been feeling over the past several minutes or so?" asked Dr. Myer. "I know you said earlier that the epidural was working and you weren't feeling any pain from the contractions. Are you feeling any pressure from the baby?"

"Definitely. I've been feeling a lot of pressure over the past twenty minutes or so."

"That's not surprising. Many women tell me that even though they don't feel much pain from the contractions after getting an epidural, they still feel the pressure of the baby descending. And, quite frankly, that's a good thing. We don't want you to be in a lot of pain, but at the same time, we want you to still be able to feel enough after the epidural that you can tell when you need to push," Dr. Myer explained. "So anyway, as soon as you start getting the urge to push, let us know."

"I will."

In the next moment, Mark sat down on the side of Louise's bed, locked his eyes with hers, took her hands in his, and said, "Sweetheart, you know I was only teasing you a minute ago about the beer."

Louise laughed and told him, "I know."

"But now I want you to really listen to me because now, I'm being serious."

"I'm listening."

"As you know, I was a medic in the army during World War Two and the Korean War, and both times when I was overseas, I delivered several babies."

"Yes, you've told me that."

"And there were a couple of women whose babies came way too fast and they really hurt themselves. So the last thing I want you to is to rush through this. I just want you to take this slow. Very slow. You just relax and take your time. You take as much time as you need. We're not in any hurry."

"Thanks, Mark. I will," Louise said softly. Then a few moments later, Mark surprised Louise by giving her a long, warm kiss. Given the fact that she was in a hospital delivery room about to give birth, Louise certainly didn't feel any sparks flying because of Mark's unexpected affection, but nevertheless, the love and support she felt from it sure made her feel good.

"Mark's absolutely right, Louise," said Dr. Myer as Maggie took out the nasal canula that had been delivering extra oxygen to Louise and put an oxygen mask over her nose and mouth instead. "What we want is a slow, controlled delivery. It is very important that the baby doesn't come too quickly."

Louise then took off the oxygen mask for a brief moment and said, "I understand." In the next moment, Louise gasped, "Oh, Mark!"

As soon as Mark saw the look on Louise's face, he knew what was happening because he'd seen the exact same expression on women's faces a number of times before when delivering their babies. He immediately got up and sat down behind Louise to hold her up and support her from behind, and then he told her, "It's alright, sweetheart. Push. Just push."

Louise put her oxygen mask back on then and pushed for several long moments while holding onto Leah's hand for dear life.

* * *

Two hours and fifteen minutes later, a very worried Leah emerged from the delivery room and walked out to the hospital waiting room where Estelle was. The instant Estelle saw Leah's face, she knew the news wasn't good.

"What is it, Leah? What's wrong?" asked Estelle.

"Louise is having a very hard time with the delivery. Her labor progressed surprisingly fast and she was ready to push in almost no time, but now, she's been pushing for over two hours and it's really taking its toll on her," Leah explained. "We wouldn't be quite so concerned if Louise were twenty years younger, but this would be hard enough for a woman in her forties who was in the best of health, not to mention a woman in her forties with heart problems. Dr. Myer and Maggie are really getting worried. They say that all of this is putting Louise's heart under a terrible strain. Louise is working so hard, but it seems that no matter how hard she tries, she just can't work up enough strength to get the baby out."

"Well why don't they just go in and do a C-section for heaven's sake?!" Estelle snapped. "Why are they putting Louise through all of this?"

"Because even though a vaginal delivery is hard on Louise's heart, surgery would be even harder. And given Louise's condition, there would be an increased risk of her developing life-threatening blood clots after a C-section. Dr. Myer explained to us that that's why the best option is for Louise to have an epidural and a vaginal birth if possible. It's best for Louise to give birth to her baby herself, if she can. But I don't think Dr. Myer will be able to hold off too much longer. She may have no choice but to go in and do a caesarian, despite the risks."

"That poor, dear woman. I was so hoping that Louise would have an easy birth. She's already been through so much. It's so unfair that even after all the hell she's already endured, she still has to struggle so."

"I know. Louise was so strong for so long, but a few minutes ago, it all really started getting to her and she started crying and as soon as that happened, I just had to get out of there or I knew that I would start crying too."

"Don't you worry about that. It's perfectly alright to cry with the people we love when they need to have a good cry. The Bible says to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. That's what we're supposed to do."

"You're right," Leah said with a nod.

"So take a moment and catch your breath, and then get back in there. Louise needs you."

Again, Leah nodded, and a few moments later, she gathered her courage and went back to the delivery room.

* * *

As soon as Leah walked back into the delivery room, she heard Louise grunting and groaning, giving the hardest push she could muster like the trouper that she was.

"That's it, Louise. That's it! That's it! You're doing great, sweetheart. Just great," said Mark.

Once Louise was finished pushing and she had laid back in Mark's arms and relaxed, Dr. Myer asked, "Are you ready for some good news, Louise?"

Louise then took off her oxygen mask and replied, "Very ready."

"I can see your baby's head," Dr. Myer announced.

"Oh, thank God," Louise gasped through her tears, and then she put her oxygen mask back on.

"You did it, Louise!" Mark cried out happily while he mopped Louise's brow with a wet washcloth. "You did it, love! You're at the finish line!"

Again, Louise took off her oxygen mask, and she told Mark, "Trouble is, I don't know if I can muster up enough strength to cross it."

"You can, sweetheart," Mark reassured her. "You can and you will. After surviving the hellhole, there isn't anything you can't do."

"That's right," Leah agreed as she walked up to Louise's bedside and took her hand. "I know this is difficult and exhausting and I know how tired you are, but you're the most incredible lady I ever met and if there was ever a woman on this earth who could pull this off, it's you."

"That's right," Mark agreed, and then he planted a firm kiss on Louise's cheek.

A couple of moments later, Louise began getting another contraction, and she took off her oxygen mask and said, "Oh God, help me. I need to push again but I don't think I can."

"I know it's hard, honey. I know," Dr. Myer said sympathetically. "Just try to give me one light push. Just try to bear down a little. Just try."

"I can't," Louise gasped as more tears filled her eyes.

"Yes, you can, sweetheart," Mark told her gently. "I know it's hard. I know it hurts and I know how exhausted you are, but it's like I said a moment ago. If you can survive the hellhole, then there isn't anything you can't do."

"You can do this, Louise," said Leah.

"Just give me one small push, Louise," said Dr. Myer. "Just one."

"Okay. I'll try," Louise whispered, and then she put the oxygen mask back on and Mark leaned her forward, and Louise's grip on Leah's hand tightened. She then took in a big deep breath and pushed with what little strength she had left.

"Yes! Yes! That's it, Louise!" Dr. Myer said aloud. "That's it!"

"You're almost there, Louise!" Leah cried out.

"The head's out now," Dr. Myer told them. "Good job, Louise. Good job! Now I want you to lie back for a minute and rest," she said as Louise leaned back against Mark and closed her eyes. "Just breathe," said Dr. Myer. "Just rest and breathe for a little bit. Just relax and catch your breath."

"You're going to cross that finish line any second now, love," said Mark. "You're going to be holding your baby in your arms any minute now. You're almost there. It's almost over."

Several seconds later, Louise started getting another contraction, and somehow, amazingly, she found it within herself to start giving that one final push that was needed to bring her baby into the world.

"That's it, Louise! Push!" Leah said aloud.

"You're doing so great, sweetheart," said Mark. "You're doing great. This is the last push, Louise. It's the last one. Your baby's coming."

"The baby's out," Dr. Myer announced in the next moment, and then the room was filled with the precious sound of a crying newborn.

With tears streaming down his cheeks, Mark planted a firm kiss on Louise's forehead and said, "Oh, Louise, baby, you did it! You did it!"

"Louise, you are amazing!" Leah cried out.

In the following moments, Dr. Myer announced, "Louise, you have a beautiful baby girl with a good set of lungs!" She then cut the cord, wrapped the baby up in a white hospital blanket, and held Louise's daughter up for her to see. And the nanosecond Louise laid eyes on her precious baby, she knew that every ounce of pain she'd gone through to carry her and bring her into the world and give her life had been more than worth it. Seconds earlier, Louise had been crying tears of pain and exhaustion, but now, it was tears of joy that were falling from her eyes as she took in the sight of her sweet little daughter's face, and Mark and Leah were crying right along with her.

"She's as beautiful as her mother," said a very choked-up Mark.

"She certainly is," Leah agreed.

Sadly, the joy of the room did not last long. A few seconds later, Louise's eyes started rolling back in her head, and she went limp in Mark's arms, and alarms started going off.

"Louise? Louise!" Mark cried out.

"She's gone into v-tach," said Dr. Myer as she handed the baby to Maggie. She then grabbed the crash cart that had been standing in the corner of the delivery room and pushed it over to the bed while two more nurses and the resident on call rushed inside. "Mark, Leah, step away from the bed," she commanded. "_Now_**.**"

Mark and Leah immediately got out of the way, and after they had stepped aside, Leah asked Mark in a whisper, "What is v-tach?"

"It's short for ventricular tachycardia. It's a fatal heart rhythm," he explained in a hushed whisper.

"Charging to two hundred," said Dr. Myer. "Clear!" she cried out, and then after the resident and the nurses held their hands up in the air, she put the paddles on Louise and administered the first electrical shock. Louise's body jumped from the electricity. In the next moment, Dr. Myer said, "No change."

"I don't understand," Leah said quietly. "What's happening to Louise?"

"Ventricular tachycardia is when the heart is basically beating too fast to be able to actually pump any blood," Mark explained. "And like I just said, it's a fatal heart rhythm. If Dr. Myer can't shock Louise's heart back into a normal sinus rhythm, she'll die."

"Oh God," Leah gasped as fresh tears filled both her eyes and Mark's.

"Charging to three hundred," said Dr. Myer. "Clear!" she cried out, and after the resident and the nurses held up their hands once again, she shocked Louise a second time. "Still no change," said Dr. Myer a moment later. "Charging to three-sixty. Clear!" she yelled, and once more, everyone held their hands up in the air. Again, Dr. Myer administered a shock and Louise's lifeless body jumped from the electricity. "Still v-tach," said Dr. Myer. "Charging to three-sixty again. Clear!" she said aloud, and everyone repeated the same procedure, and she administered another shock to Louise.

Alarmingly, things quickly went from bad to worse. As soon as the last shock was over, Dr. Myer swore, and then she told everyone, "She's deteriorated to v-fib."

"What does that mean?" asked a very worried Leah.

"V-fib stands for ventricular fibrillation. Instead of pumping any blood like her heart would normally do, now, Louise's heart is just quivering."

"Is v-fib even worse than v-tach?"

"Yeah," Mark gravely replied.

"Oh, help us, sweet Jesus," Leah gasped.

And this time, even the atheist whispered, "Amen," as yet again, Dr. Myer administered another shock.

Dr. Myer shocked Louise two more times, but terrifyingly, her heart remained in the fatal v-fib rhythm. Several moments later, to Mark's and Leah's absolute horror, the heart monitor erupted into a loud, high-pitched whine.

"She's flatlined," said Dr. Myer. "Starting C.P.R."

"I don't understand," said Leah. "Why isn't Dr. Myer trying to shock Louise's heart into beating again? Why is she doing C.P.R. now?"

"Because contrary to everything you've probably seen on TV, you can't shock somebody's heart into beating again if they've flatlined. Dr. Myer is doing C.P.R. on Louise now in the hopes that she can at least get her heart back into a shockable rhythm."

"Meaning v-tach or v-fib?"

"Yes."

"Oh, God."

"We're losing her, Leah."

"I just can't believe this is happening. We can't lose Louise. We just can't," Leah said quietly as numerous tears streamed down her face. "What is that poor little baby going to do without her mother?"

Suddenly, Dr. Myer's voice cried out, "She's back in v-fib! Charging to three-sixty! Clear!" Then after everyone backed away from the bed and held up their hands, Dr. Myer administered another shock, and yet again, Louise's body jumped with electricity.

In the next moment, the heart monitor started beeping in a steady, regular rhythm, and Dr. Myer said the precious, precious words Mark and Leah had been dying to hear inside: "Sinus rhythm."

Mark and Leah then just clung to one another and cried.


	5. A Nasty Rumor

**A/N: **See Chapter 1 for Disclaimer.

**Chapter Summary: **Louise slowly recovers from the traumatic birth of her daughter; when her little girl is twenty months old, she becomes concerned that it might be inappropriate for the two of them to continue living with Mark.

**Chapter 5: A Nasty Rumor**

Louise remained unconscious for the next three days in the ICU while her newborn daughter was tended to in the nursery by the nursing staff. Leah and Estelle were there often to visit Louise during that time, but it was Mark who refused to leave her side for a single moment. Even though the hospital was typically very strict about visiting hours, especially when it came to patients in intensive care, they all knew Louise's situation, that Mark, Leah, and Estelle were basically all she had, and Mark managed to convince the doctors to allow him to be with her as much as possible.

Finally, at around noon on a bright and sunny Monday, Louise opened her eyes. And the instant that happened, Mark jumped up out of his seat and went over to the bed and sat down at Louise's bedside, and he took her hand in his.

"Hi there, Mama," Mark whispered so lovingly.

"Hi," Louise said weakly. The head of her hospital bed was raised up and Louise was leaning back against a few hospital pillows with a nasal cannula delivering extra oxygen to her. She was also hooked up to a heart monitor and an IV. Her eyes were so tired, and it was obvious how weak she was. The delivery had taken a very great deal out of Louise and Mark could easily see it.

"How are you feeling?" Mark asked softly while stroking Louise's cheek with his fingertips.

"Like I've been hit by a car," Louise answered honestly.

"That's not surprising, sweetheart. You've been through an awful lot. I don't want to scare you, but I don't want to lie to you, either. Louise, after your little girl was born, your heart went into a fatal heart rhythm, and Dr. Myer had to shock your heart many times to get it to start beating normally again. The birth has really taken a big toll on you. You're really going to have to take it easy for a while. It's going to take a long time for you to recover."

"How's my baby?"

"Dr. Myer ran some tests on her soon after she was born. She says that your little angel is in tip-top shape. She's perfectly fine."

"Thank You, Jesus," said Louise while looking up towards heaven. In the next moment, she asked, "Mark, where is she now?"

"She's in the nursery upstairs," Mark told her. (The hospital had seven floors, and Louise was in one of the ICU rooms on the second floor and her baby was in the nursery on the third floor.)

"I want to see her. I want my baby."

"Tell you what. I'll go to the nursery and see about having someone bring her here so you can spend some time with her."

"Oh yes. Would you do that?"

"Of course," Mark said, and then he kissed Louise on the cheek. "I'll be right back."

"Thank you," Louise whispered, and then Mark got up and left.

Louise rested her eyes for the next few minutes until Mark returned with a short redheaded nurse who pushed a rolling hospital bassinet into the room. Mark then approached Louise, bent down, and gently kissed her forehead, and she opened her eyes and smiled.

"There's somebody very special here who wants to see her mama," Mark whispered.

The nurse then placed the infant in Louise's arms, and Louise couldn't help but cry as she began really taking in the sight of her daughter's face up close for the first time. The baby weighed seven pounds even at birth and was nineteen inches long. She had brown hair like that of her biological father, and her skin tone was lighter than Louise's was, but with those exceptions, the child was the very image of her mother. Louise had gone through hell to bring this baby into the world. She'd endured an exhausting delivery and had even put her life on the line, but none of that mattered now. Whatever physical or emotional suffering Louise had gone through because of the pregnancy and childbirth was now completely irrelevant to her. Now, nothing mattered except the priceless little life she was holding in her arms. Whatever suffering she'd had to endure to bring her into the world safe and sound was more than worth it. As Louise stroked her daughter's cheek and listened to her cooing, she couldn't thank God enough that she was here now.

A moment later, as the infant grasped Louise's index finger with her tiny hand, Mark asked, "So what are you going to call her?"

"Angela," Louise said softly, and then she kissed the precious tiny hand that was grasping her finger. "Angela Hope."

"Miss Angela Hope Wood. The perfect name for your little angel."

Louise then turned her head towards Mark and told him, "She's your little angel too, you know. If it hadn't been for you, I don't know what would've happened to us. You have as much to do with her being here as I do."

"It was no big thing, Louise. You did all the hard work."

In the next moment, Baby Angela began letting the adults in the room know that she was _really _ready for her lunch!

"She's probably hungry," said the nurse as soon as Angela started crying. "It's time for her next feeding. I'll take her back to the nursery."

"I want to feed her," said Louise.

"Surely you can go and get her bottle and bring it here and let Louise feed her," Mark asserted.

"That wouldn't be a good idea. I don't want the baby to continue crying while I'm gone and disturb all the other patients in the ICU," said the nurse as she took Angela from Louise's arms.

And as soon as Mark saw the crestfallen look on Louise's face, he intervened. He got between the nurse and the door, purposely blocking her exit, and he said, "Okay, I understand why you all wouldn't appreciate having a crying baby in the ICU. But Louise _is _her mother, and this is the first chance she's had to spend some time with her since she's given birth three days ago. Come on. Bend the rules a little. Have a heart."

After a short pause, the nurse finally said, "Very well." She then handed the baby to Mark and told him, "Just try to keep her quiet until I get back."

"Will do," Mark agreed, and then the nurse left.

Mark held Baby Angela and loved on her for the next minute or so and got her quieted down, and then he handed her back to Louise. The nurse returned a few minutes later with a bottle and a white hospital towel and after giving the bottle to Louise and the towel to Mark, she left once again so that Louise could have some privacy with her baby.

Over the next several minutes, Louise fed little Angela and bonded with her, and then she handed her over to Mark, who draped the towel over his shoulder and burped her. He then gave her back to Louise, who just laid still with Angela in her arms while she slept soundly in the warmth of her mother's embrace. Angela had been asleep for about five minutes when the redheaded nurse returned to take her back to the nursery, which Louise hated, of course. Louise didn't try to argue, though, because merely feeding and holding her baby for that short length of time was enough to wear her out. Soon after the nurse left with a sleeping Angela, Louise, too, nodded off to sleep while Mark, as usual, lovingly watched over her.

* * *

The days and weeks flew by, and Louise slowly inched her way down the road to recovery. Women in the best of health typically needed six weeks to recover from childbirth, but understandably, it took Louise far longer. Her doctors moved her out of the ICU into her own private room one week after she first regained consciousness, and two weeks after that, she was released into Mark's care once again. It wasn't until six months later that Louise was finally strong enough to begin physical therapy and rehab, and as would be expected, Mark hired the very best physical and occupational therapists to come out to his house and help teach Louise the skills she would need to master so that she could live her life as independently as possible from her wheelchair. Over the course of the next several months of rehab, Louise gained enough upper body strength to be able to push herself out of her wheelchair and into a nearby chair or into her special shower or onto her bed. She was also given a special instrument, simply referred to as a "reacher" or a "grabber," that she could use to reach objects from her wheelchair that she wouldn't be able to reach otherwise, which was especially helpful to Louise whenever she wanted to cook and needed to reach things in the kitchen cabinets, for example.

And by the time Angela was twenty months old, Louise was spending a great amount of time in Mark's kitchen. After she was finished with rehab, Louise soon discovered that she had a natural talent for cooking and baking, and she was constantly learning new recipes and cooking all kinds of mouth-watering dishes for Mark and Estelle, which they both loved. Estelle was thrilled that Louise was there to take over the cooking for her so that she had less work to do, and Mark simply couldn't get enough of all of Louise's culinary delights. But while Mark and Estelle adored Louise's cooking, it went much deeper for Louise besides making everyone a tasteful supper. It meant a tremendous deal to Louise to develop a useful skill in life. With her having lost her memory, obviously, whatever skills she had learned in the past were long gone, and she was starting over again with a blank slate. And furthermore, being the unofficial household cook made Louise feel like she was truly doing something to earn the roof over hers and Angela's heads that Mark was providing them.

All was going quite well for Louise and little Angela in December of 1978. At twenty months of age, the adorable, energetic little toddler was running and bouncing around the house constantly, and Mark and Estelle were always helping Louise keep up with her. The past two and a half years had been brutal for Louise, obviously, but now, she was finally in a place in her life where she felt safe, happy, and loved. She truly loved her life with Mark, Estelle, and her precious little Angie as a full-fledged member of the family and the unofficial cook. For the first time in such a long time, she felt at peace inside, and as they were all getting ready for the Christmas season that year, she was practically counting the seconds 'til Christmas morning. She couldn't wait to enjoy Christmas with the people she loved the most. At Christmastime last year, Angie was eight months old, and Louise was still in the middle of rehab. Furthermore, it hadn't been very long at all since she had recovered from Angie's terribly traumatic birth, so Louise really hadn't been at full strength, and she hadn't been able to genuinely enjoy her first Christmas with her baby. This year, Louise was really looking forward to spending Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with her little girl.

At five o'clock on the evening before Christmas Eve, members of Estelle's church came over to Mark's house for the big Christmas party she was throwing. She always threw a big party for members of her church during the Christmas season, and this year, they all couldn't stop raving about the various dishes Louise had prepared for the party. After everyone was finished with supper that night, Louise also treated Mark, Estelle, and the guests to another surprise. She pushed herself from her wheelchair over to the piano bench of Mark's piano and she started playing Christmas carols. Everybody was delighted with Louise's beautiful piano playing, and when Louise was done playing her last song, _Silent Night_, they all gave her a big round of applause.

Mark quickly walked up to the piano, gave Louise a big kiss – on the mouth, which raised a number of eyebrows in the room – and he said, "Oh Louise, I'm so proud of you."

Estelle approached them then, and she said, "Louise, you are just full of surprises."

"She certainly is," said Mark as he put his hands on Louise's shoulders, gazed down lovingly into her face, and smiled. He was clearly very proud of her.

"When did you learn to play the piano, Louise?" asked Bonnie Harris, a sweet little old lady who was one of Estelle's closest friends.

"Back in February, I asked Mark to give me some lessons," Louise explained. "One day, I wheeled myself into the living room and Mark was playing so beautifully. I just couldn't help but want to learn myself. Mark's been teaching me all year. He's been telling me for a little while now that I should play something at Estelle's annual Christmas party, but I didn't think I was good enough yet. But he finally convinced me, and I decided that I would surprise everybody tonight, and so I did."

"And you did a beautiful job, dear," Bonnie told her. "My goodness, you have so many talents. You're practically a gourmet chef. Now, we find out that you're also a budding musician."

"And she's the most loving and patient mother that ever lived," Estelle chimed in.

Then in that very moment, as if on cue, little Angie started crying her lungs out from her playpen, going into full-blown Tantrum Mode.

"Oh dear," Louise sighed. "Looks like I lost all track of time with all my piano playing and let Angie stay up past her bedtime. I better go put my little one to bed."

"I can do it for you, Louise," Mark offered as she pushed herself from the piano bench back into her wheelchair.

"I appreciate that, hon, but I'd better do it. You know Angie. If she's being tucked in at night by anybody other than her mommy, she'll start throwing an even bigger tantrum than the one she's throwing now," Louise said with a laugh.

Mark and Estelle laughed as well, and then Mark said, "Yeah, that's true."

Louise then wheeled herself over to Angie's playpen, and as soon as the child saw Louise, she stood up and held her little arms out to her. Louise smiled down at her little darling and pulled her up into her lap and cuddled and kissed her.

"I'm sorry, baby," Louise said soothingly to little Angie as her loud cries quieted down into whimpers. "I let you stay up too late, sweetheart. I know. I know. I'm sorry. It's alright. Mommy's taking you to bed right now. It's alright, sweetie. It's alright."

In the following moments, Mark and Estelle each kissed Angie goodnight, and then Louise took her upstairs, changed her into a pair of light purple pajamas that she really liked, laid her down in her crib, and tucked her in with her favorite pink teddy bear. Mark had personally built a special pink crib for Angie that was considerably lower to the ground than usual so it would be easier for Louise to lower its side from her wheelchair and put Angie in or out of it. He'd also built and painted the matching pink rocking chair that was on the other side of the nursery, and Estelle had put up the pink and white wallpaper. Angie had slept in her little bassinet at Louise's bedside during the first six months of her life, and when she had started getting too big for her bassinet, Louise (reluctantly) started putting Angie to bed in the special nursery Mark and Estelle had set up for her in the bedroom next to her mother's. And now, with Louise having turned off the lights and there being only Angie's little nightlight on, Louise stared down at her little one and smiled as she watched her sleep.

A few minutes later, the doorknob to the nursery turned and the door slowly opened, and the sound of footsteps that Louise recognized all to well entered the room. Again, Louise smiled when two familiar hands were placed on her shoulders, followed by a gentle kiss on her forehead.

"So how is our little one?" Mark whispered.

"Sound asleep," Louise whispered back. "She was out the minute I put her in her crib."

"I could watch her sleep all night. She's so precious."

"I know," Louise agreed as she tenderly stroked her daughter's cheek. Then a couple of moments later, Louise quietly said, "I feel bad about tonight. I got so wrapped up in my piano playing that I forgot how late it was. I shouldn't have let Angie stay up so long."

"Oh, don't you worry. She'll be just fine," Mark whispered. "I was so proud of you tonight. Everybody just loved your playing. You did a wonderful job."

Louise looked up at Mark then, her face all lit up at his encouraging words, and she asked, "Do you really think so?"

"I know so. We were all very impressed, and I really am proud of you. Sometimes you really can be shy about expressing your talents. I know it wasn't easy for you to put yourself out there like that. But even though it was difficult for you, you did great. You did just great."

Louise then held her arms out to Mark, and he came around in front of her and bent down, and she wrapped her arms around him and gave him a long, warm kiss. As soon as the kiss ended, Louise said softly, "I think we better go and let this little angel of ours get some sleep."

"I think you're right," Mark agreed, and then he went over to Angie's crib and kissed the top of her head. "Goodnight, my precious girl," he whispered. And in the next moment, he pushed Louise out of the nursery and closed the door behind them.

"You know something, Mark?" said Louise as soon as they were out in the hallway together.

"What?"

"For quite a while after we were rescued from the hellhole, I was convinced that my life was over. My memory was gone. I'd found out that I'd never be able to walk again. I had no family. No home. No money. And to top it all off, I was pregnant by my rapist. But now, I'm happier than I ever dreamed I could be. I just love my life here with you and Estelle. And Angie's just as happy here as I am. You take such good care of us. We have everything we could ever need or want. I guess what I'm trying to say is…thank you. You've given my daughter and me a wonderful life here that I love, and I can't thank you enough."

"Louise," Mark said softly while stroking her cheek, and then he bent down and gave her the longest, warmest kiss. When the kiss was over several long moments later, Mark said, "Well while we're on the subject of thank-yous, _I _want to thank _you _for moving in with us. You and Angie have brought so much joy and life into this house. And besides, if it weren't for the two of you, I'd be stuck here all alone with that stubborn, irritating old battleax!"

Louise laughed out loud in that moment, and then she scolded, "Oh, cut it out, Mark! You know you love Estelle!"

"Yeah. Right. Sure," Mark said sarcastically. "Living alone with an old battleax like Estelle is every man's dream!"

Again, Louise laughed, and she shook her head at Mark. "You and Estelle are just like a couple of little kids, always fussing and arguing. But deep down underneath it all, you both know that you love each other."

"Of course I love Estelle."

"Aha! You admit it!"

"I love her when her big mouth is shut!"

"Oh, Mark!" Louise scolded him again with a wave of her hand while he laughed. Then she told him, "Well anyway, I'm going back downstairs to say goodnight to Estelle's guests, and then I'm turning in for the night. I'm pooped."

"Let the old battleax say goodnight to her own guests."

"Mark, I don't want to be rude."

"I'll tell everybody goodnight for you. Knowing Estelle's friends, it'll probably take them all a good thirty minutes at least to say goodbye and leave and I don't want you to have to be up that long if you're tired. Mommy needs her rest too, you know."

"I don't know," Louise said doubtfully.

"Trust me, Louise. Don't worry. Nobody will think you're being rude. I promise."

"Well…alright, I guess. Thanks, Mark."

"Don't mention it," said Mark, and then he began pushing Louise's wheelchair to her room.

* * *

The day after Christmas, it was crystal clear to Louise and Mark that Estelle was _not _in a good mood when she came home from the grocery store. The moment she walked in through the back kitchen door, she set the two bags of groceries she was carrying down on the kitchen counter, and as she was putting things away, she was slamming cabinet doors right and left.

"What's got you in such a foul mood today, you annoying old battleax?" Mark teased.

"Oh, put a sock in it, you smart-alecky old fool!" Estelle snapped in return, and then Louise jumped a bit in her wheelchair as Estelle slammed another cabinet door.

"Uh oh. Looks like the old bat's woken up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. Louise, if I were you, I'd duck for cover!" Mark kidded.

Estelle then walked up to Mark, made a fist, and told him, "If you don't cut it out, I'm going to knock you clean into next week!"

"Hey, take it easy, old girl. If you want to pick today to be a cranky old biddy and get on everybody's nerves, that's fine with us! We're used to it!"

Ever the levelheaded voice of concern and reason, Louise kindly asked, "What is it, Estelle? What's the matter?"

"Yeah, what is it, Estelle? You got your girdle on too tight or something?"

"You're cruising for a bruising, Moore!" Estelle warned.

"That's _Mr. _Moore to you, Anderson," Mark (teasingly) fussed. "Don't forget, I'm still your boss."

"I wish _I could _forget!" Estelle fired back.

"Okay, you two. Quit all this feuding and fussing, and Estelle, tell us what it is that's got you so mad," Louise scolded them, sounding much like a mother scolding a couple of quarrelling siblings.

"When I was at the store a little while ago, I overheard Ana Jones and Sue Lott talking," Estelle began to explain. Ana Jones and Sue Lott were both members of the congregation at Estelle's church and they had each been at the big Christmas party three days before.

"Go on," said Louise.

"Well…they weren't just talking. They were gossiping."

"So?" said Mark.

Estelle then made eye contact with Mark and told him, "They were gossiping about you and Louise. There's a very nasty rumor going around town about the two of you."

"What is it, Estelle? What are people saying about Mark and me?"

Estelle sighed, and then she responded, "Those two worthless busybodies have got their lace panties all in a wad, Mark, because they saw you kiss Louise after she was finished playing Christmas carols at the party three days ago. Now they're spreading rumors that you and Louise are fooling around with each other. Thanks to those two nasty, mean-spirited, dirty-minded old bats, the whole town is convinced that you and Louise are living in sin. I asked around, and Louise, some people are even saying that you weren't really raped by the Forty-Niner and that Mark is Angela's father."

"What?" Louise gasped in disbelief. In that moment, she truly looked as though she'd just been kicked in the gut.

"I don't believe it," Mark said quietly. "I always knew that people in general are stupid and cruel, but I honestly didn't realize that the people of Haven Lake could be _that _stupid and _that _cruel."

"Neither did I," said Louise.

"It took every ounce of restraint I had to keep from marching up to those stupid old women and punching their lights out! I was so mad, I rushed out of the supermarket as fast I could. I didn't even get everything on the shopping list."

"Don't worry about it, Estelle," Mark told her kindly. "I'll go out and get the rest of the groceries myself later on today."

In the next moment, a pair of precious little feet came walking into the kitchen, and as soon as Louise saw her little girl, she quickly wiped away the tears that had begun forming in her eyes. The child immediately walked over to Louise, and she held out her arms to her and said, "Mommy, up!"

Louise smiled down at her daughter, and she didn't hesitate to pull her up into her lap and cuddle her for a good long while. As mother and child cuddled with each other, Estelle continued putting groceries away and Mark just stood in complete silence, lost in his own thoughts. A few minutes later, Angie began getting restless and decided she wanted down from her mommy's lap, and after Louise set her down, she went running off into the living room to play with some of the toys she had in there. Estelle followed after her, knowing that Louise and Mark needed a chance to talk alone.

"I can't believe it, Mark," Louise sighed. "I just can't believe it."

After remaining quiet for several long moments, Mark looked at Louise and told her, "Don't worry about anything, Louise. I know that this is an ugly and vicious rumor. I know it's disturbing. But like all rumors, it'll die down eventually. In the meantime, the most important thing is not to let it get to us. If we let it bother us and we let other people see that it's bothering us, it'll only give them more ammunition and they'll just keep on and on tormenting us. The best thing we can do is to just go about our everyday business as if we have no clue what people are saying about us."

Louise shook her head then and said, "I don't care what people say about me. If people want to talk trash about me, that's fine. I've got much more important things to worry about besides town gossip. But _I do care _when it starts to affect you."

"Honey, I don't care about what a bunch of silly busybodies with no lives of their own have to say about me. I never have cared and I never will," Mark assured Louise, and then he walked up to her and kissed her forehead. "Let's just forget about all this foolishness and move on with our lives, alright?"

"Alright," Louise said quietly, and then she and Mark gave one another a very long hug.

* * *

It was about five o'clock that evening when Mark came home with the rest of the groceries on Estelle's grocery list. Just as he finished putting everything away in the kitchen, Estelle came through the kitchen door carrying little Angie in her arms.

Mark gave Angie a great big smile, kissed her cheek, and said, "Hey there, Princess."

The child responded by holding her arms out to Mark, and Mark didn't hesitate to take her from Estelle's arms and hold her and love on her for a good while. Then finally, he looked at Estelle and asked her, "Where's Louise?"

"She's in her room lying down. Right after you left for the supermarket this afternoon, she started getting one of her headaches. I think it's probably all the stress that it caused her hearing about that ridiculous rumor. It's my fault. I should never have told her about it." Ever since Louise had been rescued from the hellhole, she had frequently suffered from horrific headaches that were actually quite debilitating. Whenever Louise had one, the pain typically made her sick at her stomach, and almost any movement at all made the excruciating pain even worse. Louise's doctor prescribed some strong medication for her to take, but Louise was often too nauseous to be able to keep even a few sips of water and a pill down. Most of the time, the only real cure was for Louise to lie down in her room in complete silence with the lights off and lie as still as possible for several hours until the pain finally let up.

Mark kindly shook his head and said, "Don't blame yourself for anything, Estelle. Even if you had tried to keep the truth from Louise, she still would've heard about it eventually. If not from you or me, then from somebody else."

"Yeah, I guess that's true," Estelle sighed.

"Here," said Mark as he handed Angie over to Estelle. "Keep an eye on our favorite little troublemaker for a bit while I go upstairs and check on Louise."

"Sure thing," Estelle agreed, and in the next moment, Mark left the kitchen and headed upstairs to Louise's room.

* * *

When Mark came up to Louise's bedroom door, he didn't knock because he didn't want to wake Louise in case she had fallen asleep, so he just turned the knob very gently and stuck his head inside.

"Louise?" he whispered. "Are you asleep, honey?" Louise was lying on top of the bedspread of her bed in her clothes, just as still as a statue.

"No, I'm still awake," Louise quietly answered.

"Is it alright if I come in for a minute?"

"Mm-hmm," Louise whispered, and then Mark came inside and pulled up a chair beside her bed and sat down.

"Did you get sick after your headache started, sweetheart? Tell me the truth." Mark knew better than anyone how often Louise tried to put up a brave front for everyone, even for him, and he was usually the only person who could get Louise to admit how bad things were when she was really sick.

"If you're really dying to know, yes, I did lose my lunch after my headache started a few hours ago."

"How is the pain now on a scale of one to ten? Be honest with me, Louise. Don't sugarcoat it."

"It's on up there," Louise admitted. "I'd say about a seven."

"Okay, here's what we're going to do. I'll go downstairs and make you a nice cup of chamomile tea. That usually helps settle your stomach when you have days like these. And then you can take a couple of those pills the doctor prescribed for you for nausea. And then when we get your stomach settled down, you can take something for the pain."

"I appreciate the thought, Mark. I really do. But you know that when I'm having days like these, sometimes I can't even keep the tea or the nausea pills down. I really don't want to chance it."

"I know, honey, and I don't blame you. But we can't let you get dehydrated. If that happens, you'll get even sicker. Let's at least try to get some fluids in you, alright?"

"Alright," Louise sighed, obviously not happy about it.

"I'll be right back," Mark whispered, and then he left.

* * *

It took Mark a good two hours, but he finally coaxed the chamomile tea, nausea pills, and pain pills into Louise, and by seven-thirty that evening, the pain medicine started kicking in and Louise was genuinely feeling better. The day had taken its toll on her, obviously, and Mark could easily see that Louise needed to turn in for the night and get some rest. However, just as he was about to kiss her goodnight, Louise asked him to stay a few minutes longer.

"What is it, sweetheart?" Mark asked her kindly. "What's on your mind?"

"I just can't stop thinking about that terrible rumor that's going around town about the two of us."

"Oh Louise, you're not still worrying about that, are you?"

"I've been doing a lot of thinking about this whole situation today, Mark."

"And that's probably what triggered your headache this afternoon. You know stress induces them. You shouldn't have been dwelling on this all day, sweetheart. You should have just forgotten about those stupid gossiping old biddies and relaxed. You know how important it is for you to avoid stress at all costs," Mark lovingly scolded her.

"I know; I know," Louise admitted. "But it's just so hard not to think about it. And all of this has made start wondering about some things."

"Such as?"

"Well…our situation."

"What about it?"

"From day one, ever since I woke up in that hellhole with both my legs broken beyond repair and no memory of who I was, you've been right there for me. Whenever it was possible, you chose to be beaten and raped in my place while we were trapped in the hellhole together. And afterwards, when my baby and I needed a home and a family, you and Estelle opened your hearts to us and gave us one. And when I was in the middle of rehab last year and we learned that the Forty-Niner had escaped from prison, you were the one who held me through all my nightmares and stuck to me like glue and went out of your way to make sure I felt safe every second of the day. You've always taken care of all my medical needs. You give me more money than I could ever spend in an entire lifetime. You provide for my daughter. You see to it that both Angie and I have everything we could ever need or want."

"You say all that as if it's a bad thing."

"It could be, Mark. All this time, I've just been relaxing and enjoying my life here with you and letting you take care of my daughter and me. But I'm not your wife, and Angie is not your child. Angie and I are not your responsibility. I think that all this time, I've been taking advantage of your generosity without even realizing it. Perhaps it's time that I started thinking about getting a job and moving out on my own. I'm worried that I really have become much too dependent on you. Even though there isn't anything between us other than friendship, it might not be right us living together like this."

"Well first of all, Louise, even if that stupid rumor was true and you and I were fooling around with each other, it wouldn't be anybody's business but ours. This is a free country and if two good friends who love each other very much want to live together as a family, they have every right to do so. Our living arrangement is between you and me and nobody else. You and I are two grown mature adults and it is not anybody else's business how we choose to conduct our own lives.

"And second of all, you are _not _taking advantage of my generosity. That's the most ridiculous thing I ever heard. You're only taking advantage of me if _I feel _taken advantage of, and I can guarantee you that I have never felt that way for a single moment. And I never will feel that way. Louise, _I love you. _And I love that precious, adorable baby. And every moment that you and Angie are here with me is a joy. An absolute joy. And you've given me just as much as I've given you over the past two years. Whenever I have nightmares about World War Two or Korea or the hellhole, you're always right there by my side. Whenever everything I've been through starts to get to me and I need someone to talk to, you're always there to listen, and you always encourage me and lift me up. You do all the cooking. You help Estelle take care of the house. You help _me _put up with Estelle," Mark teased, and Louise responded by rolling her eyes at him. "This whole crazy notion you have of you taking advantage of me is just plain silly, and I want you to put it out of your head this instant. You contribute as much to this household as I do. You deserve everything I give to you and Angie and you know it."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Louise said softly.

"Of course I'm right. I'm _always _right. It is a statistical impossibility for a genius like Yours Truly to ever be wrong about anything," Mark kidded, and Louise responded with a chuckle. Then they talked some more, and finally about an hour or so later, Louise started really getting tired so Mark kissed her goodnight.


	6. A Friendship Ring

**A/N: **See Chapter 1 for Disclaimer.

**Chapter Summary: **Estelle suggests to Mark that he should propose to Louise.

**Chapter 6: A Friendship Ring**

Louise's talk with Mark really helped put her mind at ease, and for the next several days, she actually forgot all about the terrible rumor that had gotten started about her and Mark. But then on the day after New Year's Day when Louise decided to go to town with Estelle to help her run a few errands, she overheard people talking about her and Mark, and the nasty things they were saying about them were downright vicious. Although Louise tried very hard not to let it get under her skin, she couldn't help but be upset about it, and neither could Estelle.

A little while after the two ladies got back home, Louise knocked on Estelle's door, and Estelle called, "Come in."

Louise opened her door then and wheeled herself inside and said, "Hey, Estelle. Have you got a minute?"

"Of course I do," Estelle answered with a smile. "What is it, honey?"

"Estelle…what do you think Jesus thinks about all of this? About Mark and me living together, I mean."

Without hesitation, Estelle told Louise, "I think Jesus understands your unique situation, and I think He would want you and your little girl to be with people who love you and look out for you."

Louise smiled sadly and asked, "Do you really think it can be that simple?"

"Of course it can."

"I don't know," Louise sighed. "I can't stop thinking about how the Bible says that we're supposed to abstain from all appearance of evil. Even though these rumors about Mark and me were started by a couple of cruel busybodies with no lives of their own, they actually do have a point. How does it look for a single woman to be living with a man she isn't married to? And for her to kiss him in public on top of that? It's no wonder this nasty rumor got started."

"You're worrying too much, Louise," Estelle insisted.

"When I let Mark kiss me at the Christmas party, I didn't think anything of it at the time, and neither did Mark. We kiss each other and love on each other all the time. We don't even think about it. It's just part of our relationship. It always has been. But now that I really think about it, it's beginning to dawn on me that Mark and I probably have been incredibly naïve."

"Okay. So from now on, you and Mark will simply cut out all the public displays of affection. No more hugging, cuddling, or smooching in front of Ana Jones and Sue Lott."

"I am concerned, though. What if this ugly rumor never dies down and goes away? What if years from now, Mark's reputation is still suffering because of my living here? If I did anything to hurt Mark's reputation after all the wonderful things he's done for Angie and me, I'd never be able to forgive myself."

"Like I just said, Louise, you're worrying too much. This is your home. This is where you and Angie belong. I promise you that in a few more weeks, the Haven Lake grapevine will forget all about you and Mark and move on to somebody else. Just give it some time."

"Yeah, you're probably right. It was just so upsetting when we were in town earlier today and we overheard all those cruel things people were saying."

"I know. It was upsetting to me too. People can be real imbeciles sometimes. But like I said, in enough time, all these silly gossips will find another topic to move on to and they'll forget all about you and Mark. In the meantime, you just forget about them and relax. Just go about your life like you normally do and don't give these idiots a second thought. They aren't worth a single moment of your time or energy."

Louise nodded then and said, "I know you're right, Estelle. It's just so hard not to think about it. But I know I've got to at least try to put all this nonsense out of my mind for Angie's sake. If I'm all upset, she'll pick up on it and start getting anxious."

"And you've got to do it for your own sake, too. If you keep stressing yourself out about this, you'll make yourself sick. You've got to take care of yourself, Louise."

"I know. You're right. Thank you, Estelle."

"I'm always here for you, honey. You know that."

"I know," Louise said sweetly, and then she and Estelle exchanged a warm smile. In the next moment, Louise left.

* * *

Louise's talk with Estelle did make her feel better for a little while, but over the next several weeks, the rumors about her and Mark persisted and it deeply upset her. Louise honestly didn't care what stupid lies people spread about her, but it _did _bother her when people talked about Mark. Louise knew that if it hadn't been for Mark, she and her unborn daughter would never have made it out of the hellhole alive. Louise knew that if it hadn't been for Mark, she and Angie would've been homeless and penniless and all alone in the world. After Mark had done so very much for her and Angie, it killed Louise to think that her living with Mark was doing such great damage to his reputation.

Finally, one afternoon in early February, Louise asked Estelle to drop her off at the Haven Lake Bakery. While Estelle was gone running errands in town, Louise was having a talk with Garrett Andrews, the bakery's owner. Mark was very much a loner and he didn't have many close friends, but Garrett was one of them. He'd come over to Mark's house for dinner many times since Louise had been living there, and Louise had gotten to know him fairly well.

"Hey, Louise," Garrett greeted her with a big smile, and then he gave her a hug.

"Look out! You don't want to be seen hugging a black woman in public, Garrett, or Ana Jones or Sue Lott or some other member of the Haven Lake grapevine will start spreading nasty rumors about you!"

"If they do, I'll just tell them that they can kiss my fat white butt!" the tall, heavyset, white-haired man teased, and then both he and Louise had a good laugh.

Louise and Garrett had a good talk, and Garrett really took a load off her mind. He was even more helpful than Louise had hoped he would be. And soon after they made their agreement, Estelle came back to the bakery to pick Louise up and take her home.

* * *

"Mark, Estelle, I have an important announcement to make," Louise said to them at the dinner table. They were eating late that night, and because they had been running late, Louise went ahead and fed Angie her supper first and put her to bed, so now, it was just the grownups at the table.

"Oh? What's that, hon?" Mark asked her with a smile.

"Well, actually, it's _two _big announcements. My first announcement is, I got a job."

"What?" said Estelle.

"A job?" said Mark.

"That's right. A job."

"What do you need a job for? You already have a job. Your job is to take care of Angie and to help me tolerate day-to-day life with the old battleax!" Mark quipped.

"What he means is, it's your job to take care of Angie and to help _me _find new ways of putting up with this stubborn old jackass every day!" Estelle fired back.

Louise laughed at their antics and shook her head at them and said, "You two never change. You're both so silly and crazy!"

"Now what's all this about a job?" asked Mark.

"I spoke to Garrett Andrews at the Haven Lake Bakery this afternoon. You know his assistant baker, Jerry, is moving away next month, and he needed someone to replace him. And he's eaten cakes and bread that I've baked when he's been over here for supper. He thinks I show a lot of promise as a baker. So I'm going to start the job next month after Jerry leaves and Garrett is going to teach me everything he knows. Garrett really does believe that with enough time and training, I can become a wonderful professional baker. His words, not mine. And you guys know that big empty apartment on the second floor of the building that's right over the bakery?"

"Yeah?" Mark said with dread, sensing what was coming next.

"Well you know that Garrett used to live there himself before his wife died a few years ago. It's been vacant ever since he moved out into his own house on Lexington Drive. And we talked about it this afternoon, and he agreed to rent the apartment to me. When I start my new job next month, Angie and I will be moving into the two-bedroom apartment over the bakery. That's my second announcement."

"Now wait a minute, Louise. Hold on a second. Slow down," Mark told her. "What's this thing about a job all of the sudden, huh? I mean, you do so much around the house that it may as well be a full-time career. And isn't it enough of a career already just to be the mother of a twenty-one month old toddler?"

"It's not about a career, Mark. It's about moving out into her own place. People are still talking about you and Louise and the rumors are really disturbing her. She's afraid it wouldn't be right for her to continue to live with you," Estelle said insightfully.

"Louise, I thought we already talked this out. I thought we were past this."

"Mark, Estelle, I love you both very much. You know that. And you know how much I love it here. But I just don't feel right about living here anymore. Mark, people just won't stop telling vicious lies about us – _about you _– and if my being here is going to continue to damage your reputation, then it's only right that I leave."

"I don't give a rat's butt about my reputation!" Mark fussed.

"Well I do. You've done so very much for Angie and me, but now, I really do feel deep down in my heart of hearts that it's time that we moved out on our own. I've depended on you for so long, but now, it's time for me to start standing on my own two feet financially and emotionally. It's time that I started being independent. It's time that I started making my own way in the world."

"Louise, can't we talk about this?" asked Mark.

"There's nothing to talk about, honey," Louise kindly responded. "I've already reached an agreement with Garrett. It's a done deal. I'm starting my new job next month, and I'm moving into the apartment upstairs above the bakery. My mind is made up."

Mark responded with a low grumble, and then he, Louise, and Estelle all finished their supper in silence.

* * *

Angie had recently hit a growth spurt, so the next morning after breakfast, Louise called a cab and took her out shopping for some new clothes. And while Louise and Angie were out of the house, Estelle took the opportunity to have a deep discussion with Mark in private. Mark was sitting on the living room couch alone a few minutes after Louise left with Angie, and Estelle came in from the kitchen and sat down beside him.

"I want to talk to you, you stubborn old fool," she told him, but her tone of voice was much gentler than usual. It was a tone Mark recognized all too well.

He turned to her then and asked in the same kind tone, "What is it, you cranky old battleax?"

"You've got to talk Louise out of this foolishness. You can't let Louise and Angie leave. You know as well as I do that it would be a terrible idea for a woman with all of Louise's health problems to be all on her own, raising a little girl all by herself. Louise is a proud woman and she'd never be able to admit this, but you know as well as I do that she really needs someone to look after her. Louise and Angie need us. We're their family, and this is their home. They belong here."

"I know that. I know they belong here. Nobody wants them to stay more than I do. But there's only so much that I can do, Estelle. I've already tried to talk some sense into her. So have you. But it appears that despite our best efforts, Louise has made up her mind. And whether we like it or not, this is a free country and Louise is a grown adult and she does have the right to move out if she wants to. If Louise chooses to leave, there's nothing we can do to stop her. It's not as if I can chain her up to the kitchen sink."

"But you're overlooking the most obvious solution."

"And what's that?"

"The very reason why Louise wants to move out is because she's worried that it's wrong for her to continue living with a man that she isn't married to. She's worried that God doesn't approve. And furthermore, she feels guilty for allowing you to financially support her and her daughter. But if you married Louise and adopted Angie, she would have no reason to feel that way."

"Marry Louise?" said Mark, clearly taken aback.

"Look Mark, I know how deeply you miss your wife. I know it killed you when Rebecca died five years ago, and I know that the thought of marrying another woman is unimaginable to you. But whether you want to admit it or not, I know how much you care for Louise. You're her best friend, and she's yours. And in many ways, you already _are _a husband to Louise and a father to Angie. You provide for Louise and Angie. You always see to it that they have everything they need. You take care of Louise when she's sick. You hold her in your arms and rock her when she's reliving the hellhole in her nightmares. You help Louise take care of Angie. You lavish love and affection and attention on Louise and Angie constantly. Those are the things that husbands and fathers do. You've been Louise's husband and Angie's father ever since you brought Louise home from the hospital over two years ago. Isn't it time that you made it official?"

"I don't know, Estelle," Mark said quietly. "I mean…I know you're right. I do love Louise. I love her so much, and I adore that precious little girl of hers. And on the one hand, I would be honored to be Louise's husband and Angie's father. But on the other, I just can't get over the feeling that if I asked Louise to marry me, I'd be stabbing Becky in the back."

"Your wife loved you, Mark. She was a warm, giving, generous woman and she loved you more than anything. And I know that she wouldn't want you to spend the rest of your life alone. She would want you to get married again. She would want you to move on with your life. She would want you to be happy."

Mark looked Estelle in the eyes then and asked her, "You really don't think she would mind?"

Estelle told him truthfully, "Rebecca would be _proud _to see you marry a woman as wonderful as Louise. I know it."

Mark nodded, taking in Estelle's words for several moments, and then he got up and took several steps towards the kitchen door. Just before leaving the living room, he turned his head back towards Estelle and told her, "Thanks for the advice, you old bat."

Estelle knowingly smiled, and then she responded, "You're welcome, you old knucklehead."

* * *

After Louise and Angie came back home, Estelle informed Louise that she had arranged for Angie to spend the night over at the Scotts' house. Dean and Marie Scott, Mark's next-door neighbors, had a two-year-old little girl named Bethany, and Bethany and Angie were always playing together and spending the night with each other. And as soon as Angie heard that she would be spending the night with her favorite playmate, her face lit up like a Christmas tree. And not long after Estelle made that announcement, she also let Louise know that she would be going over to a friend's house for supper and that she wouldn't be getting back home until very late that night. She then told Louise to dress up that evening because Mark had plans to take her out to eat at a very fancy French restaurant in Boston.

And indeed, Mark did take Louise out to eat in Boston early that evening, and then he took her to a live performance of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which she absolutely loved. Louise started getting tired around ten o'clock so Mark brought her home. They got back at about twenty 'til eleven.

"Louise, sweetheart, I know you're tired," Mark said to her right after he pushed her wheelchair into the living room, "but there's something very important that I really need to talk to you about." Louise was wearing a beautiful dark green evening dress and Mark was wearing a black suit, and they truly were a classy-looking couple that night.

"Alright. What is it, Mark?"

Without further ado, Mark reached into his coat pocket, pulled out a black velvet box, and placed it in Louise's hands. Louise opened the box and gasped when she saw the beautiful ring. It had a large square emerald with two small diamonds on either side on a rose gold band, and it was downright _gorgeous_. It truly took Louise's breath away.

Several moments later, Louise looked up at Mark in astonishment, and he took her hand in his and said, "Louise, I want you to think about marrying me."

"Oh Mark," Louise gasped. "I don't know what to say. The ring…it's so beautiful."

"They always say that diamonds are a girl's best friend, but diamond engagement rings are so common. Almost every woman's engagement ring is a diamond one. I wanted to get you something a little different. And you're always going on about how much you love all the green scenery of Haven Lake. Since you like green so much, it seemed appropriate to get you an emerald engagement ring."

"I have no objection whatsoever to emeralds. Believe me," Louise assured him.

"I'm glad you like it," Mark said softly.

"Like it? I love it. It's wonderful. But why are you proposing to me now? Why all this sudden talk of marriage?"

"Because I don't want you to go," Mark told Louise truthfully.

"Oh, Mark. Honey, you don't have to worry about me moving out."

"I don't?" Mark said hopefully.

"No. You don't have to worry about it at all. My moving into my own place is not a bad thing. I'm going to be fine. I'm going to be just fine."

"Louise, I think it's time that you stopped kidding yourself. You have to take medication to keep your heart rhythm stable because of the cardiac contusion that monster gave you that your heart never really recovered from. Your right leg was broken thirty-seven times, and your left leg was broken twenty-eight times by that evil maniac, and because of all the damage that was done to both your legs, you'll be wheelchair-bound for the rest of your life. Because of all the horrific blows you took to the head, you lost your memory, and to this day, you still suffer from headaches that are utterly debilitating. I know what a proud woman you are, and I know this is difficult for you to accept, but it's just a cold, hard fact that because of the pure hell your body has been through, you do have certain limitations. You cannot live all by yourself, Louise. And you cannot take care of your little girl all by yourself. You need help. And there's no shame in that. It's okay to admit that you can't do everything all on your own."

"And you want us to get married so I won't feel bad about living with you anymore."

"And because I love you and want what's best for you."

"I appreciate that, Mark. I appreciate it so much. I really do. But _I _need to be the one to decide what's best for me. I know you love me, and I love you too. So very much. You're my best friend in the whole world. But even though our love for one another runs very deep, you and I are not _in love _with each other. If we got married, it would be for all the wrong reasons. You would be marrying me because you're worried about all my health issues and you don't want me to be on my own with Angie, and I would be marrying you for security and stability and so my daughter would have a father."

"Those seem like perfectly valid reasons to me."

"But they're not. If we got married, it would be out of fear, not love."

"Oh Louise, this whole idea of 'being in love' is for hormonal teenagers."

"Not to me, it isn't. Call me silly. Call me an old romantic. But I still believe in love, and I believe that the only reason a man and a woman should ever get married is because they're in love with each other. I know that from day one, you have showered Angie and me with love, but I _also_ know that there's only room in your heart for one woman, and it isn't me. It's your late wife. I know that Becky is the only woman you'll ever really love in that way. And on my end, I know that I'm not really capable of being a wife."

"What makes you say that?"

After a long pause, Louise said, "I never told anybody this before, but during the six months or so after we were rescued from the hellhole, I was terrified of the possibility that I had a husband out there somewhere and that he would eventually find me. And when more and more time passed and nobody showed up and it became obvious that I was a single woman, I was so relieved. I don't want to be married, Mark. I don't want to be a wife."

"Why not?"

After another very long pause, Louise finally answered, "Because if I had a husband, I would have to have sex with him. That's a big part of being a wife. And after what Saul Donaldson did to me in that hellhole, I **never, ever **want to have sex again as long as I live. I want no part of it."

"After that beast did to you, I don't blame you for feeling that way," Mark said sympathetically.

"So don't you see, Mark? If I said yes to your marriage proposal, it would be unfair to both of us. We would both end up getting shortchanged because we don't have the kind of feelings for each other that a husband and a wife _should_ have for one another. And you would also get shortchanged because you deserve a woman who can be your wife in every way, and that's something I just can't do."

"I suppose you do have a point," Mark said reluctantly. "As much as I adore you and Angie, I honestly can't imagine being with anybody other than my Becky."

"I know," Louise said kindly. "And it's okay that you feel that way," she assured him, and then she held out the black velvet box. "Here. You should keep this. Someday you'll find a woman you're truly in love with, that you can spend the rest of your life with. You should save this ring for her."

Mark shook his head then and told Louise, "No, sweetheart, you keep it. I bought this ring especially for you. I know we're not engaged, but it doesn't have to be an engagement ring. Just think of it as a friendship ring. Wear it on your right ring finger."

"Oh Mark, I couldn't possibly–"

"I insist," said Mark, and then he took the emerald ring out of the box and slipped it on Louise's right ring finger. In the next moment, he kissed her hand and gave it an affectionate squeeze.

"Mark, I just don't know what to say. It's beautiful. It's absolutely beautiful. I'm going to treasure this ring every day for the rest of my life."

"I'm happy that you like it so much."

"I love it," Louise said with a smile, which Mark returned. Then a couple of moments later, his expression turned more serious.

"Louise, do you _have _to leave?"

Louise remained silent for a few long moments before finally replying, "Yes, I do. I love it here. I've always loved it here. You know that. The past two years that Angie and I have been living here with you and Estelle have been absolutely wonderful. But as wonderful as my life here is, I honestly believe that the time has come for me to get out on my own. This nasty rumor that got started about us made me start doing some hard thinking about my life. _Our_ lives. And like I've said before, I just cannot stay here in good conscience if my being here is going to continue damaging your reputation. I couldn't do that to you. Not after everything you've done for Angie and me. And there's another reason, too."

"What?"

"I didn't witness all of the abuse that monster put you through, but for me, the abuse wasn't just sexual or physical. It was emotional. He tore me down in every possible way in that hellhole. He destroyed me physically, sexually, and emotionally. He told me time and time and time again that I was useless and stupid and worthless because I was a woman. He told me that I wasn't really a person because of my race and my gender. He kept saying to me over and over again that I was a worthless cripple and that because of that and the fact that was a black woman, I'd never be able to amount to anything. Even though it's been so long, I can still hear his words ringing in my head. Even though I know mentally that his words are nothing more than a big pile of crap, emotionally, there's still a part of me that's scared that I might actually be less of a person because of my gender, race, and disability. And that's a big part of the reason why I need to do this. You've made my life so warm and easy and comfortable here, and this rumor has got me to thinking over the past couple of months that maybe my life is _too _warm and easy and comfortable. I've been thinking here lately that _maybe_ _I need _to start really challenging myself. _Maybe I need _to stop depending on you for everything. _Maybe I need _to get out there on my own in this world, as scary as that is, and prove to myself that I am as intelligent and capable as any white, able-bodied man. _Maybe I need _to prove to myself that I do have what it takes to become independent and make something of myself."

"For what it's worth, you already have made something of yourself in my book. I think you're an extraordinary lady. After surviving what you did, I don't think you have anything to prove."

"It's like I was just saying a moment ago. I have things that I need to prove _to myself_, Mark."

"I just don't like the idea of you and Angie living alone. Who'll make you drink enough liquids to stay hydrated when you've got one of your headaches and you're sick at your stomach? Who'll drive you to the doctor for your regular checkups? Who'll be there for you when you have your nightmares? Who'll help you calm Angie down when she needs a nap and she's throwing a temper tantrum?"

"Honey, we'll be alright. I promise you. Yes, I have health issues. Yes, I'm in a wheelchair. But there are disabled people all over the world who are independent and lead productive lives despite their health problems. There are a lot of disabled people who are single parents that manage to hold down jobs and provide and care for their children on their own. I'm not saying that I'm not scared. I'm not saying that this won't be a huge challenge for me. But even though this will be a very difficult change for me to make in my life and even though I'm scared to death, I have to believe in myself. If I don't, I'll just spend the rest of my life wondering what I could have accomplished had I had the guts to try."

"I don't like it, Louise," Mark sighed. "I don't like it at all. But I think I understand. Just remember, even though you won't be living here anymore, you and Angie won't be all alone in the world. No matter where you two are living, Estelle and I will always be here for you. We don't have to have the same address in order to be a family."

"You're absolutely right. You and I have always been family to each other, and we always will be. And we don't need the walls of this house to keep us together. People say things like, 'We'll see each other all the time,' and they never really mean it. But _I do mean it _when I tell you that you and I will see each other all the time. We will."

"I know. Hey listen, speaking of seeing each other all the time, why don't you drop Angie off here with me and Estelle every morning? We can look after her for you while you're working at the bakery during the day, and then you can come over here and have supper with us before you take her home at night."

"Oh Mark, I love that idea. But are you sure you guys wouldn't mind?"

"Of course not. That way, we'll see each other every day through the week."

"And you and Estelle can come over to my place to visit and have lunch and supper on weekends."

"That's a great idea."

"So when I do leave next month, it's not like it'll really be goodbye. We'll constantly be seeing one another."

"Yeah, we will be," Mark said with a sad smile. "I'm still going to miss having you and Angie here, though. I'm going to miss you both so much."

"I know," Louise said sadly. "We're going to miss you and Estelle, too. But like we were saying, we'll be seeing each other all the time."

"I know we will be. And I know that even though this will be a tough change for all of us to make, we'll be okay. Even though I thoroughly hate the idea of you and Angie moving out, I do admire you for wanting to challenge yourself like this. I know that if we never truly challenge ourselves, we'll never truly grow. It takes courage to do what you're doing, and I really do respect you for it."

"Thank you, Mark."

"I'm going to miss you so much," Mark said as his voice cracked, and then Louise held her arms out to him, and she gave him a very long, fervent hug.

"I know, honey," Louise told him as tears filled her own eyes. "I know. We're going to miss you and Estelle too. So much."

Louise continued to cling to Mark and Mark kept clinging to Louise over the next several minutes. Instead of eventually releasing one another from the hug like they would have under normal circumstances, they just kept right on holding each other, utterly refusing to let go.

* * *

That Sunday at around four o'clock in the afternoon, Mark spotted Ana Jones and Sue Lott having a cup of coffee together at the Whiteside Coffee Shop. Although a big part of him was telling him that it was best to just leave things alone and not make a scene, he was so infuriated with both of them for the role they played in splitting his family up that he couldn't resist the urge to walk over to their table and give them a piece of his mind.

"Hello, ladies," Mark said solemnly as he pulled up a chair and sat down at their small table. "I have something very important that I'd like to say to both of you, but don't worry. It won't take me long. I'll just say my piece and then I'll get out of your hair. What I want to say to the two of you is this: you are both a couple of obnoxious hypocrites. You make a big deal out of going to church every Sunday. You make a big deal about how you and your husbands are such pillars of the community. You think that because you're both so well off financially – and because you're white – you have an automatic right to look down through your noses on people of different races who don't have as much money as you do. I may be an atheist, but I'll have you know that I've read the Bible cover to cover several times, and I'm quite certain that if there were such a place as heaven and if Jesus did exist and He was looking down on you two, He would find each of you to be revolting. More often than not, Jesus preferred to spend time with the very people you two despise. He was always hanging out with the lame, the sick, lepers, outcasts, prostitutes. And I'll tell you this: if, in His time, He had heard of a woman in His vicinity who had been tortured, raped, and beaten so badly that she'd be wheelchair-bound for the rest of her life, **He would never have talked about her behind her back and spread ugly rumors about her. **He would have gotten to know her. He would have become her friend. He would have loved her. And He would have done everything in His power to help her. So what does it say, what does it _really _say about the two of you that when you first heard about Louise Wood and all the hell that she had gone through, that you never once bothered to visit her in the hospital? What does it say about you that you never once even tried to befriend Louise at a time in her life when she needed friends the most? You knew that Louise had permanently lost her ability to walk and that she had heart problems because of the beatings she endured from Saul Donaldson. You knew that she had gotten pregnant by her rapist and that she and her baby needed help. _I _was the one who was with Louise every step of the way through all of this. _I _was the one who made sure that Louise and her baby had a roof over their head and food and clothing and anything else they needed. I may be an atheist, but there's more of Jesus Christ in the way I live my life than there ever will be in the way you live yours. And it's disgusting, heartless hypocrites like the two of you that make me so grateful that I never became a Christian. You are both a couple of selfish, stupid, vindictive, cruel women, and if you had any decency inside of you, you'd be too ashamed of yourselves to show your faces in public."

The two women just sat there before Mark in pure and utter shock, unable to believe that someone would actually dare to speak to them that way. Naturally, they were far too proud and arrogant to admit, even to themselves, that Mark was right. However, they _also _knew that there was really nothing they could say in their own defense, so they didn't even try. The only thing they _could _do was simply sit there and stare ahead in stunned silence.

Finally, Mark simply said, "Good day, ladies," and left.


	7. Helping Garrett

**A/N: **See Chapter 1 for Disclaimer.

**Chapter Summary: **Louise is devastated to learn that Garrett Andrews, her boss and close friend, is seriously ill.

**Chapter 7: Helping Garrett**

The next fourteen months were a whirlwind of activity for Louise, and before she knew it, it was May of 1980. She poured everything she had into her job at the Haven Lake Bakery, and thanks to Garrett, she was constantly learning something new. Garrett immediately saw how much potential there was in Louise, and in that time, he taught her everything he knew, not only about being a professional baker, but also about running a business. He taught Louise everything she needed to know in the kitchen, and he also taught her how to balance the books, take inventory, and all the ins and outs of running one's own establishment.

It had been difficult for her at first after moving out of Mark's house. She deeply missed living with Mark and Estelle, and so did Angie. However, it didn't take them long to adjust to a new routine. Angie absolutely loved going over to Mark's house every day, and Louise also loved going over there at the end of the day to enjoy supper with Mark and Estelle before taking Angie home. Every time Louise went over there, she patiently listened to Mark and Estelle feud with each other, and she also listened with great interest as they talked about everything that was currently happening in their lives. They, too, anxiously listened to Louise when she filled them in on everything that had happened at the bakery that day, and when she talked about the latest thing that Garrett was teaching her. Having Mark and Estelle babysit Angie during the day and being able to eat supper with them at night went a long way towards making the transition easier for both Louise and Angie. Mark also helped in other ways as well. The morning after his unsuccessful marriage proposal, he went over to talk to Garrett about Louise moving into the apartment over the bakery, and he helped make sure that Louise would have everything she needed. After talking to Mark, Garrett had an elevator installed so that Louise could reach the apartment on the second floor with ease. He also had both bathrooms in the apartment renovated to accommodate Louise's needs.

One evening in mid-May, Louise announced to Mark and Estelle that she had finally managed to save up enough money to purchase something that she had wanted for herself for a long time: her own vehicle. Louise had saved enough to make a down payment on a special van that was specifically designed for a handicapped person to drive. It had a lift that made it possible for Louise to get into the van in her wheelchair, and there were special controls that allowed her to operate the gas and brakes with her hand instead of her right foot. The van was a deep shade of burgundy and it was indeed beautiful, although it was quite expensive. But despite the fact that the down payment and monthly payments were taking a good bite out of Louise financially, she knew it was well worth it for that priceless bit of extra independence it was giving her. Louise had been taking driving lessons on the weekends for the past several weeks, and she had just officially gotten her driver's license a couple of days before. When Louise told Mark and Estelle that, they were both extremely proud of her, and that was putting it mildly.

Two more months passed by at the speed of light, and it was on a hot July evening that life suddenly threw Louise another curve. It happened just as Louise and Garrett were closing up the bakery for the day. They were talking and joking around like they always did when out of the blue, Garrett began to collapse. As Garrett started going down, Louise called his name, and she immediately wheeled herself over to him. She got there just in the nick of time and pulled him onto her lap so he wouldn't hit the floor. She then wheeled over to the phone and called for an ambulance.

Garrett didn't regain consciousness until the next day, and even though he was awake when Louise came to visit him at the hospital later on that evening, it was obvious he wasn't doing well at all.

"Hi," Louise said kindly after wheeling herself over to Garrett's bedside. Garrett was in a private room, hooked up to IVs and monitors, and there was a nasal cannula delivering extra oxygen to him. In the next moment, she took his hand and gave him a warm smile.

"Hey there, Lou," he responded with the same warm smile.

"How are you feeling?"

"I feel like crap," he told her bluntly, which was very typical of his abrupt personality.

"Now Gar, quit holding back and tell me how you really feel!" Louise quipped, and then they both laughed. Several moments later, though, Louise got more serious, and she asked him, "Do your doctors know what's wrong yet?"

"Yeah, they know," Garrett sighed. "They know and so do I. We've all known for a long time, as a matter of fact."

Still holding his hand, Louise asked, "What do you mean?"

"I was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor six years ago."

"What?" Louise gasped.

"My doctors threw everything at it they could. Chemotherapy. Radiation. But in the end, nothing worked. They were hoping they could at least shrink it, but like I said, nothing worked. The upside at the time was that it was dormant. They told me that as long as it remained dormant, I could live a long time."

"But it isn't dormant anymore, is it?" Louise asked with dread, already knowing the answer.

"No. It's growing again. Rapidly. The doctors say I don't have long. A couple of months. Maybe just weeks."

"Oh, God. Are they sure, Garrett? I mean, are they absolutely sure that they haven't made a mistake in their diagnosis?"

"They're sure, Lou. And quite frankly, so am I. I've been getting splitting headaches and dizzy spells for months now. I kept telling myself a load of crap. I kept telling myself that I was getting migraines. That it was stress. But deep down, I knew what was happening. I just didn't want to believe it. So I just kept going on as if everything was normal. I didn't let myself think about it too much."

"I don't blame you. If I were in your shoes, I'd be too scared to let myself think about it, too."

"Yeah," Garrett sighed.

"Oh Gar, I wish I knew what to say. I wish there was something I could do about all this. I wish I knew how to help you."

"You _can_ help me."

"How?"

"By taking over the bakery for me."

"What?"

"Oh come on, Louise. Don't act so surprised. If I don't leave the bakery to you, _who will_ run it after I'm gone?"

"But you have a son," Louise protested.

"Bill is busy with his own life out in California with his wife and kids and his own career. He's a marine biologist. He doesn't care anything about the bakery. If I left it to him, he'd just sell it and put you and Heather out of a job without thinking twice about it. And I love that bakery. It's been in my family for generations. It belonged to my grandfather, then my father, and finally me. It means a lot to me, and dare I say, it also means a lot to this town."

"You're right. It does. People love coming into your bakery every day. I can't imagine Haven Lake without it."

"Neither can I. And I'm not about to leave it to my spoiled, ungrateful, pigheaded son just so he can sell it. The bakery should go to someone who has the same passion for baking and for our customers that I do. And that someone is you. You're a dream to work with, Lou. An absolute dream. Over the past year and a half, you've become a natural baker. You're so talented. And the customers adore you. Sometimes I think they come to the bakery for your warmth and your smile even more than they do for our bread and cakes and pastries. I knew all along, right from the moment I hired you, that you would eventually be the one to take over the bakery in my place. I just didn't think it would happen this soon."

"But what about Heather Watts? She's been at the bakery longer than I have."

"Heather's just a kid. She's only twenty-two," Garrett retorted. Heather was a sweet, hardworking, beautiful tall girl with long blonde hair and blue eyes who had been working at the Haven Lake Bakery ever since she was eighteen. She worked the cash register and did all the cleaning. "Don't get me wrong. She's a wonderful kid," Garrett added. "But she's still just a kid. And she doesn't know the first thing about baking or how to run a business – all the things that I've been teaching you over the past year and a half. Louise, if you don't take over the bakery for me, it'll be lost the moment Bill gets his hands on it."

"Don't worry about that. I won't let that happen," Louise reassured him while squeezing his hand. "Should the worst happen, I'll take care of the bakery for you. I'll take care of everything."

"What do you mean, 'should the worst happen'? The worst is _already_ happening."

"Well you never know. There are huge advancements being made in modern medicine all the time. Your doctors just might come up with some kind of treatment that can help you before it's too late. You never know what might happen."

Garrett chuckled then and said, "Louise Wood, the hopeless optimist. You never change."

Louise smiled and responded, "Yes, I am a hopeless optimist and proud of it. But seriously, let's not be so quick to give up hope, huh? After all, there is nothing more unpredictable than life on this earth. You never know what's coming up next on the horizon. I say that regardless of what any doctor tells you, as long as there is breath in your body, there _is _hope. Just look at my daughter and me. When I was first rescued out of the hellhole, I had swelling on my brain and a cardiac contusion and more breaks in my legs than we could count and for a while, my doctors were saying that I probably wouldn't make it. Then when we found out that I was pregnant, those same doctors were telling me that because of some medication they'd given me when I first came into the hospital, my baby would probably have birth defects. And they were also feeding me all kinds of horror stories about how I'd probably die in the delivery room and leave my poor, deformed baby all alone in the world without a mother."

"Actually, if you want to get technical about it, Lou, _you did die _for a good ten minutes or so according to Mark and Leah."

"I was clinically dead for twelve minutes after I gave birth to Angie, but that isn't the point. The point is, my doctors were telling me that Angie would probably have birth defects and that I probably wouldn't survive giving birth to her, and in both cases, they were wrong. Today, Angie is a perfectly healthy, happy, lively three-year-old, and I am alive and kicking – well, in a manner of speaking, anyway. I may not be able to kick, but I am very much alive. So don't let go of hope just because a group of doctors gives you a forecast of doom and gloom. Doctors aren't God, and they aren't always right all the time. Like I said, you never know what's coming up next on the horizon."

Garrett smiled sadly and said to Louise, "I'm really glad you came to see me tonight."

"Of course I came. And Heather's coming by in the morning before work. We'll both be coming by to see you all the time."

"That's comforting to know."

"What about your son and your daughter-in-law and your grandchildren? When will they be coming out to see you?"

"They won't be coming at all."

"What?" Louise gasped, unable to believe her ears.

"I haven't told my son about any of this and I never will," Garrett insisted.

"Garrett, you cannot keep this from your son," Louise told him firmly.

"I can and I will," he said stubbornly.

"But I don't understand. Why would you want to keep something like this from him?"

"Because I have nothing to say to that stupid, rotten son of mine!"

"You don't mean that," she said forcefully.

Garrett then angrily pulled his hand away from Louise's and yelled, "I do so mean it! Don't try to play shrink with me, Louise! I know what I do and do not mean, and I mean this: that sorry excuse for a son of mine makes me sick and if I never see him again, it'll be too soon!"

"I am not trying to 'play shrink' with you, Gar. I'm just trying to be a good friend; that's all. I don't understand. Why do you have so much anger and hostility towards your son?"

"That is none of your business!"

"I'm just trying to help you. At a time like this, the last thing you need to do is push your family away. You need them by your side now more than ever."

Unable to stay mad at Louise, Garrett let out a long sigh and tried to calm himself down. After all, it was obvious that she was only trying to help.

"Louise, I'm tired, and I really don't want to talk about this anymore."

"Alright, Garrett. I won't talk about your son anymore. And I'll say goodbye for now and let you get some rest."

"Thanks for coming over here. It means a lot. It really does."

Louise then bent over and kissed his cheek, and she told him, "I'll see you tomorrow, Garrett."

"See you tomorrow," Garrett responded with a smile, and then Louise left.

* * *

Before Louise knew it, July turned into August and August turned into September. During that time, Louise ran the bakery in Garrett's absence, and she took to it like a bird took to flight. At Garrett's insistence, Louise hired an assistant baker to do all the work she used to do in the kitchen while she took over all of Garrett's work. She hired someone in his fifties named Frank Holland, a tall, slim black man with graying hair, who had previously worked at a bakery in New Jersey for decades before relocating to Haven Lake. He was married and he and his wife had a grown married daughter and two grandchildren that he just couldn't stop bragging about to Louise and Heather. He was a very quiet, sweet man and he began fitting in at the bakery in no time. He was a wonderful addition to the staff, and Louise was an even more wonderful boss. Everything ran like a well-oiled machine under her leadership, and while Garrett was pleased to hear how well Louise was handling everything in his place, he wasn't at all surprised.

Finally, on the night of the twenty-fifth of September, Louise got the call from the hospital that she'd been dreading. The nurse that called her at around seven that evening informed her that Garrett was in his final hours. Louise then dropped Angie off at Mark's house so that Estelle could babysit her while Louise and Mark went to the hospital together to be with their friend.

When Louise and Mark arrived at the hospital that night, Garrett wasn't his normal no-nonsense, tough-as-nails self. He actually had tears streaming down his cheeks. For the first time ever in the history of their friendship, he wasn't ashamed to openly show how frightened and vulnerable he was. Not long after Louise and Mark came into Garrett's hospital room, Garrett asked to speak with Louise in private, so Mark stepped out into the hallway.

Once the two of them were alone, Louise took Garrett's hand in hers, and Garrett told her, "I've been a fool, Lou. I've been such a fool all my life. I've been proud. Arrogant. Stubborn. When my son realized that he didn't want to carry on the family business, that he had different interests, different dreams, I didn't even try to understand where he was coming from. I just got angry because he didn't want to grow up to be a carbon copy of his old man. I got angry because he wanted to be his own person. Bill wanted something different for his life than what I wanted, and I punished him because of it. _I _pushed him away. It wasn't Bill's fault that our relationship fell apart. It was _my _fault. It was _my _arrogance. _My _pride. _My _stupidity. I didn't even try to understand Bill's side of things. I just got mad and stamped my foot and threw tantrums and pushed my child away because _I _wasn't getting what _I _wanted. I threw my relationship with my child, _my only child_, under the bus because I was so busy acting like a two-year-old. I never once considered that Bill might actually be right and _I _might be the one who was wrong," Garrett admitted, and Louise's loving grip on his hand grew tighter as more tears started streaming down his face. He then said, "I wasted so much time, Louise. I wasted all these years, time I could've spent with my son and my grandchildren, because I was too proud and too stupid to tell Bill that I was sorry."

"Garrett, listen to me. It's not too late. I can call your son right now and tell him what's going on and ask him to come out here."

"_It is _too late. I'm the last person he'd ever want to see."

"You don't know that. Let me talk to him. Let me try. We can at least call him and try to get him to come out here. What's the harm in trying? Just give me his number and let me talk to him for you, alright?"

Reluctantly, Garrett nodded and then he gave Louise the number.

* * *

After Louise had a very long talk with Garrett's son, he finally agreed to come to Haven Lake with his family. They flew out to Massachusetts that night, and when they arrived at six o'clock the next morning, Mark met them at the airport in Boston and picked them up and brought them to the hospital. When Bill Andrews walked into his father's ICU room with his wife, his son, and his daughter, Mark and Louise stayed outside in the hallway and watched through the window as Bill and Garrett clung to each other and cried.

"I never thought I'd see those two hugging each other like that in a million years," said Mark. "There's been so much animosity between them for so long. I don't know how in the world you did it, Louise. You're a miracle. You are a living, breathing miracle."

"Oh, I didn't do anything all that earth-shaking. I just talked to him and appealed to him one human being to another. Bill already knew way deep down inside that it was the right thing to do."

"Maybe so, but I still think you're underestimating yourself. You are a very special lady, Louise Wood," Mark told her, and then he bent down and kissed her cheek.

"Well speaking of miracles, I sure hope and pray that Garrett can get a miracle and get to have more time with his family. I know the doctors are saying that it won't be long, but hopefully he'll get to have at least a little bit more time with his son and his daughter-in-law and his grandchildren before it's too late."

"I hope for that too, sweetheart," Mark sighed, and then a few moments later, he and Louise decided to go to the hospital cafeteria together for some breakfast.

* * *

Garrett surprised everyone and held on to life for the next two weeks. It was special, precious time for both Garrett and Bill to have with one another, and it also helped Garrett tremendously to get to be near his grandchildren once again. Sadly, though, on the ninth of October, Garrett's condition deteriorated once again, and it quickly became apparent to everyone that he wasn't going to last much longer. It was about eleven o'clock that night, and while Bill's wife and children had gone back to Mark's house for the night, which was where they'd all been staying ever since they came to Haven Lake two weeks ago, Bill had gone to the hospital cafeteria for a cup of coffee and a bite to eat. After Bill left the ICU room, Louise was permitted to go inside and be with Garrett despite the fact that it wasn't visiting hours.

As soon as Louise wheeled herself over to Garrett's bedside, he grabbed her hand like a drowning man would grab a life raft.

"It's alright, Garrett. I'm here," Louise told him gently.

"I'm scared, Louise," Garrett admitted as his voice cracked. "I'm so scared."

"What is it, honey? What are you afraid of?"

"A couple of years after Grace and I got married, she became a Christian, and it drove me crazy. She was always trying to preach at me about the gospel and getting saved, but I would always cut her off. I never would listen to a word she had to say whenever she would try to talk to me about Jesus. I hated it that she was a Christian. _I hated it._ I told myself that it was all just a bunch of stupid religious nonsense. But the real reason I wouldn't listen to Gracie was because I was jealous. It made me so mad that there was something in her life that she loved more than me. But now that I'm finally at death's door, I'm beginning to see that my wife was right. It makes sense that as incredible as the earth is, the mountains and oceans and forests and sunrises and sunsets, it took a Being who was powerful and perfect in every way to create it all. It makes sense that it would all have to be created by Someone who was so perfect that He couldn't stand to be around a person with even the tiniest trace of sin in his life. It makes sense that at the end of our lives, we'll all have to stand before a perfect God and answer to Him for the way we've lived."

"You're right. It does make sense," Louise agreed.

"And if I have to stand before a perfect and holy God with my track record, then I don't stand a snowflake's chance in hell. I'm toast."

Louise then gave Garrett's hand a loving squeeze and told him, "It doesn't have to be that way. You can have peace with God. There's still time."

He then let out a bitter, sarcastic chuckle and asked, "Do you really think Jesus would want to have an obstinate old fool like me up in heaven with Him?"

Without a moment's hesitation, Louise responded, "Absolutely. Garrett, Jesus Christ allowed Himself to be nailed to a cross so that _He could _take you up into heaven and have you with Him after you died."

"Isn't there something in the Bible about taking up your cross and following Jesus? I don't think there's enough time left for me to do that."

"What you're talking about is discipleship, not salvation. They're two entirely different things. Salvation is the free, undeserved gift from God that Jesus purchased for humanity when He went to the cross. We can never earn our own salvation, Garrett. We can't ever live up to God's standard, which is absolute perfection. When Jesus died on the cross, He paid the penalty for all our sins and anyone who trusts in Him receives His perfect righteousness. All anyone has to do to receive it is to simply say yes to the free gift of eternal life that He bought for all of us through His finished work on the cross."

"What about discipleship? What's that?"

"After a person trusts in Jesus to save him from the eternal penalty of his sins, he has the choice to spend the rest of his life serving Jesus as one of His disciples or to live solely for himself. If someone chooses to spend his life serving Jesus as a disciple, he has to be prepared to do anything Jesus wants him to do. He has to be prepared to even die for Christ's sake if necessary. Like I just said, salvation is the free, undeserved gift of God. Once you trust in Jesus to save you, you will go to heaven when you die, no ifs, ands, or buts. But serving Jesus as a disciple is **not **free. It could cost a believer his life, which is why Jesus said that anyone who wants to follow Him has to take up his cross. But even if a believer doesn't choose to spend his life serving Jesus as one of His disciples like he should do, he's still saved from eternal damnation because he trusted in Jesus. We're not saved because of anything we do or don't do. We're saved by trusting in Jesus and in His finished work on the cross to pay for our sins."

"I think I understand."

"Just accept Christ's free gift of eternal life. Just trust Him, Garrett. That's all you have to do."

"Okay," Garrett whispered as still more tears fell from his eyes. "I'll trust Jesus to save me."

Tears filled Louise's eyes then as well, and she brought Garrett's hand up to her lips and gently kissed it. As Garrett began trusting Jesus Christ for the very first time, Louise could see such peace in his face, and she was so grateful that he was no longer afraid to let go. As the next several minutes passed, Louise just remained right there by her friend's bedside, gently stroking his hand while he slept. Several minutes after he fell asleep, he gently and easily passed from this life to the next.


	8. Louise's New Princess

**A/N: **See Chapter 1 for Disclaimer.

**Chapter Summary: **Louise and Melissa are reunited.

**Chapter 8: Louise's New Princess**

Garrett left the bakery and the upstairs apartment to Louise in his will just as he said he would, and over the next month, Louise ran her new business and she ran it well. It broke her heart that she became a business owner through the death of her close friend, of course, but she quickly adjusted to all of the various new responsibilities that were thrust on her shoulders and she soon proved herself to be an astute businesswoman. She had always paid very close attention to everything Garrett taught her about how to run the bakery, and she carefully remembered everything he said. All in all, the transition from Garrett's leadership to hers went very smoothly after his passing, and the Haven Lake Bakery continued to thrive just as it always had.

And despite the obvious sadness Louise felt over losing Garrett, her own life was thriving as well. Although she was deeply saddened by Garrett's passing, she soon found that she loved running the bakery, and the one thing in life she loved even more than her career was spending time with her daughter. It was truly difficult at times, balancing her newfound responsibilities as a businesswoman with her responsibilities as a mother, but most of the time, Louise managed to do it quite well. However, five weeks after Garrett died, Louise was still learning how to find that delicate balance between being a mother and running a business when her whole world was shaken up by unforeseen circumstances once again. One cold, snowy November evening, just as Louise was about to close up the bakery for the night, she got blindsided by a phone call from Leah, giving her news she never could have anticipated.

"Hello?" said Louise when she answered the phone.

"Hello, Louise? It's Leah."

"Hey there, girl. What are you up to this evening?"

"Brace yourself, Louise. I have some disturbing news."

"Oh, no. What's the matter?"

"One of my friends, a social worker named Lizzie Thomas, called me and asked me to come to the hospital in Boston. There's a little girl here who's in the foster care system and she was badly abused and neglected by her foster parents. The next-door neighbors finally called the authorities on them and most of the ten foster children who lived there were put into new foster homes, but this little girl's condition was so severe, she had to be taken to the hospital. Lizzie was going through her records, and as it turns out, I think you know her. Her name is Melissa Chen, and she–"

"Yes, I know Melissa!" Louise cried out. "That poor, dear baby. She spent more time in the hellhole than either Mark or I did. And you're saying now that she's hurt?"

"She's in the ICU in critical condition."

"Oh, God."

"She has two broken ribs and a severe concussion, and she also had some internal bleeding when she was brought in this morning that surgeons had to go in and fix. The doctors have run some tests and mercifully, there doesn't appear to be any brain damage, but they're still very worried about the concussion. And with the surgery she's also had today, she's…well, she's in pretty fragile condition," Leah explained, and then she and Louise talked for several more minutes about Melissa. Leah told Louise which hospital Melissa was in, which happened to be the very same hospital where Garrett died. Then soon after that, the two ladies said goodbye and hung up. Afterwards, Louise wasted no time in calling Mark and informing him of the situation, and they both agreed that they would meet Leah at the hospital that night and that Angie would spend the night at Mark's house with Estelle.

* * *

"Melissa's life has been absolutely tragic up to this point," Leah told Louise and Mark as they stared at the fragile, unconscious, precious little eight-year-old girl through the window looking into her small room in the pediatric ICU. They were all crushed as they looked at the tiny, broken child from the hospital corridor. "I did some digging, and as it turns out, Melissa was being abused even before she was kidnapped by Saul Donaldson and taken to that dilapidated cabin. Her parents moved to the States from China nine years before they had Melissa. Her father was actually a pastor of a small Presbyterian church in Boston and her mother was a homemaker. On the outside, they appeared to be the perfect family. The Chens were considered to be pillars of the community. People adored them. Then one day, out of the blue, Melissa disappeared. Nobody knew what happened. Then several days after Melissa's sudden disappearance, Mrs. Chen was discovered dead in her home. Shortly after that, Mr. Chen was taken into custody and after an intense interrogation, he finally confessed to murdering his wife. He also confessed to the police that he'd been sexually abusing Melissa all her life. We can only assume that Melissa ran away from her parents because of Mr. Chen's abuse and that sometime after that, she was kidnapped off the streets by the Forty-Niner."

"And then after being rescued from Saul Donaldson's hellhole, she's turned over to crappy foster parents where she has to endure even _more _abuse," Mark said quietly while he and Louise silently cried.

"I can't even imagine it," Louise gasped. "It was hard enough for you and me to go through all the abuse we did, Mark, and we're adults. I can't imagine going through such atrocities as a child."

"Neither can I," said Mark.

Louise wiped the tears from her eyes, and then in the next moment, her face lit up as an idea came to her.

"Leah, both you and your husband are judges. You wield considerable influence in this state. Is there anything you can do to persuade the courts to allow me to adopt Melissa?" Louise asked Leah earnestly, and while Mark's face certainly registered a note of surprise at Louise's question, he was thrilled to hear her ask it. "I realize that I have the deck stacked against me," Louise continued. "I know interracial adoptions are always a challenge, not to mention single-parent adoptions. And I know that my health issues and my being in a wheelchair doesn't help my case at all. But despite all of that, is there anything that you can do?"

"Well, you're right, unfortunately. You do have the deck stacked against you for all the reasons that you stated. However, you're also right about my husband and me. Thankfully, we have a lot of good friends in high places. I can't promise you anything, but Matt and I will do everything in our power to help you adopt Melissa."

Louise then reached out and gave Leah a big hug, and afterwards, she said, "Oh, thank you, Leah. Thank you so much. There's nothing more in the world I want than to bring that precious girl home with me and take care of her."

"My husband and I will do everything we can to make sure that that happens," Leah assured her. "Melissa couldn't hope for a more wonderful mother than you, Louise, and I'd like nothing more than to see you adopt her."

"And I feel the same way," Mark concurred.

"Thanks, you guys. I really appreciate the support," Louise told them.

"I'll speak to Lizzie right away and get the paperwork started for you to become Melissa's foster parent. And I'll pull every string I can to try and cut through all the red tape and get the adoption approved as soon as possible. Like I said, I can't make any promises, but I'll give it everything I've got because I'm convinced that you are the best thing that could ever happen to that little girl."

"Oh Leah, I can't thank you enough. I want to adopt Melissa more than anything. First things first, though. Right now, we have to get her well again."

"Right now, we have to hope she makes it through the next few days," said Leah. "According to the doctor, the first two to three days after major surgery are the most critical, especially for a little child."

"Well I'll be right here with her every moment I can be," said Louise. "The good thing about being the boss is that I can delegate when I need to. Frank and Heather can hold down the fort for me for a few days while I'm here with Melissa. Mark, you don't mind having Angie stay with you and Estelle while I'm here, do you?"

"You know better than to even ask," Mark said kindly.

"Come on, guys. Let's go inside," said Louise, and then all three of them walked into Melissa's ICU room together and began keeping a constant vigil at her bedside. Thankfully, the doctors agreed to bend the rules and allow them to spend as much time with Melissa as they could.

* * *

Over the following two days, Louise and Mark took shifts watching over Melissa, and they both made sure she was never alone for a second. Louise constantly held Melissa's hand and talked to her, and she also had Mark buy some children's books for kids her age, and she read to her a great deal. And when Louise needed to go out into the ICU waiting room, get settled in one of the recliners out there, and get some rest, Mark took over for her.

Finally, at about five-thirty on a cold, snowy Thursday morning, Melissa opened her eyes. Louise was at her bedside holding her hand, and Mark was sleeping in a chair in the corner. The second the child woke up and saw Louise there, her little face lit up. She knew exactly who Louise was, and she had never stopped thinking about her for a moment after she was taken out of that dilapidated cabin three years ago.

"Melissa!" Louise gasped the second Melissa's eyes opened, and Melissa responded by holding her arms out to her. Louise immediately hugged her, and she kissed her and loved on her and held onto her for the longest time as tears of joy streamed down her cheeks. When one of the nurses saw through the window that Melissa had woken up, she called the doctor and came inside. The doctor on call came a couple of minutes later, and while he and the nurse were examining Melissa, Louise wheeled herself over to Mark and woke him up. After they were done examining her, she held her arms out to Louise once again, and Louise didn't hesitate to push herself up out of her wheelchair and into the bed next to Melissa so that she could hold her in her arms.

"I thought about you every day," Melissa told her, and Louise's eyes filled with even more tears as she kissed the top of her of head.

"I love you, sweetheart," Louise told her through her tears. "I love you so much. And I'm going to do everything I can to see to it that you and I are never apart again."

"Do you mean it?"

"Absolutely. A friend of mine is already working on helping me get approved to become your foster parent. If everything goes according to plan, you'll be coming home with me as soon as you're well enough."

"They hurt me really bad, Louise," said Melissa as she, too, started to cry. Naturally, Louise cried with her.

"I know they did, baby. I know they did. I know that terrible people have been hurting you all your life, but that's all over now. Nobody is ever going to hurt you again. I promise you that."

"And so do I, baby girl," Mark said as he fought to keep from crying. "This is _never, ever_ going to happen to you again. We're going to see to that."

"Louise, don't let me go," said Melissa as she clung to Louise, and Louise held her even closer.

"I won't, sweetheart," Louise whispered as yet even more tears filled her eyes. "I am _never _letting you go again," she assured her, and she truly meant it with every fiber of her being. Come hell or high water, she was _never _going to let Melissa go again. She was _never _going to let this remarkable little girl out of her sight again for as long as she lived.

* * *

"How, _how_, could I have possibly been so stupid?!" Louise cried out two days later when she was sitting at Mark's kitchen table with him and Estelle. Melissa had just been moved out of the ICU and into her own private room that morning and naturally, Louise was going to go back to the hospital to visit her later that day. "Why didn't I think to check up on her and make sure she was okay?" asked Louise. "After all, everybody knows how horrible the foster care system is in this country, yet I just blindly assumed that Melissa was in a good home and was being taken care of. What the heck was I thinking?"

"You shouldn't blame yourself, Louise," said Mark. "Right after we were rescued from the hellhole, you found out that you had gotten pregnant by your rapist. You had to forget the rest of the world for a while and focus on taking care of yourself and your baby. And then after Angie's birth, you had a very long recovery ahead of you and on top of all that, you had to go through rehab and physical therapy and occupational therapy. No, if anybody should be blamed for this, it's me. I have no excuse. I should have thought to do some digging and find out who she was with and where she was living, but I didn't. Like you said a moment ago, Louise, I just blindly assumed that Melissa was alright and I went on with my life. I'll never forgive myself."

"Neither will I," said Louise.

"I think both of you are missing the point," Estelle chimed in.

"What do you mean?" asked Mark.

"I mean that all that stuff is in the past and there's nothing either one of you can do about it, so sitting here complaining about it and getting mad at yourselves isn't going to do anybody any good, least of all Melissa. What you guys should do is focus on the here and now and do whatever you can to help that precious little girl."

Louise nodded then and said, "You're right, Estelle. You are absolutely right."

"Didn't you say that Leah was working on cutting through the red tape so that you could become Melissa's foster parent soon?" Estelle asked Louise.

"Yes," Louise replied. "As a matter of fact, Leah and her husband have already worked wonders for me. Thanks to them, I'll officially become Melissa's foster parent in two weeks. And now that that's out of the way, they're already working on getting the adoption approved. I just so wish I had found Melissa and started doing all this sooner."

"The important thing is, you're doing it now," Estelle told Louise gently.

"I just hope and pray everything works out and that I'm able to adopt her."

"It's going to work out," Mark assured Louise. "Don't worry."

"I'm trying not to, but yet, it's hard not to worry. After all, I have so many things going against me."

"Yes, but you have Leah and Matt in your corner, not to mention Yours Truly and the old battleax, here. Leah just told me the other day that she and Matt are good friends with the judge who's going to be ruling on the adoption. I'm certain that they'll be able to cut through all the red tape and get the adoption approved soon."

"I hope you're right," Louise sighed, and then Mark reached over and gave her a big side-hug.

* * *

The following Saturday, Melissa was discharged from the hospital, and Louise brought her home. As soon as they arrived, Louise took Melissa to the lovely lavender-colored bedroom that she would be sharing with Angie. Angie sat happily in Louise's lap playing with one of her dolls while Melissa just stood and stared, taking it all in. Practically everything in the girls' bedroom was lavender. The wallpaper was white with lavender flowers, and the rugs on the hardwood floor were lavender as were the lamps on the nightstands between their twin beds and both bedspreads. The girls also had their own walk-in closet, and Louise just recently bought a white desk and matching chair for Melissa, as well as her own vanity mirror.

"It's beautiful," Melissa said quietly.

"I'm so glad you like it, sweetie. This bed," said Louise as she pointed to the bed on the right side of the room, "is all yours. And so is the desk and the vanity mirror, although you will have to share them with Angie in a couple of years when she's old enough to use them. And look inside the closet," Louise told Melissa, and she walked over to the closet doors on the left side of the room and opened them. The left half of the closet was filled with Angie's things, and Melissa immediately recognized that all the beautiful clothes, shoes, and accessories on the right half of the closet were in her size.

Melissa then turned to Louise and said in pure astonishment, "You did all this for me?"

Louise smiled and responded, "Of course I did. This is your home now, Melissa. And I want you to know that everything here – _everything _– is all yours. This place belongs to you now just as much as it does to Angie and me."

Tears filled Melissa's eyes in that moment, and Louise set Angie down and then she held her arms out to Melissa. Melissa walked into Louise's arms, and Louise, mindful of Melissa's broken ribs, was very careful in how she hugged her.

When their long embrace finally ended several long moments later, Melissa told Louise, "You shouldn't be so nice to me."

"Of course I should be, baby. Nobody deserves it more than you do."

Melissa fervently shook her head and said, "No, I don't. I don't deserve it at all. I deserve for you to hate me."

"Honey, what in the world makes you think that you deserve for me to hate you?"

"Because all that time that we were in that stinky basement with that mean, scary man and he said you had to choose who he was going to beat up, me or you, you always chose yourself, and I didn't do anything. I didn't say anything. I just let him hurt you. I should have told him to beat me instead, but I didn't because I was scared. I was a coward. You used to be able to walk. I remember when you could stand and walk. But now you can't and you never will again because I was too scared to take the beatings for you."

"No, baby, _no_," Louise said as tears filled her eyes. "Oh precious, you are so wrong. You were a baby, Melissa. _A baby. _You still are. And it is _not ever_ a little child's job to protect a grown-up. Little children like you and Angie are the most precious thing in the world, and it's the job of parents and adults to protect children. _I'm glad_ I took those beatings for you. _I'm glad_ I did what I could to protect you from that beast. It was the right thing for me to do. I just wish I had done more to protect you."

"What more could you have done?"

"I could have had my friend Leah look into your case and make sure you were placed with good foster parents who were taking care of you. But I didn't even think about it. It never dawned on me that they would put you in such a terrible home. I promise you, Melissa, that had I known, I would have done something about it way before now. I just hope you can forgive me and let me make it up to you now." The child responded simply by climbing up into Louise's lap and resting her head on her chest. More tears streamed down Louise's face as she held Melissa close, and she kissed her head again and again.

"I love you, Louise," Melissa told her in her the softest, sweetest little voice.

"I love you more," Louise whispered in Melissa's ear, which made her smile.

Melissa then looked over at Angie, who was playing with her doll on the other side of the room, and a moment later she turned to Louise and asked, "You got pregnant with Angie because of him, didn't you?"

Knowing that the child was wise beyond her years, Louise told her truthfully, "Yes. I was in the hospital a long time because of everything he did to me, and after I was there for three months, the doctors discovered that I was pregnant."

Melissa gave Louise an understanding nod and said, "Don't worry. I won't ever tell her."

Louise smiled and held Melissa's cheek, and she told her, "I appreciate that, honey. You are so wise and thoughtful." She then let go of Melissa's cheek and took hold of her hand and gave it a loving squeeze. "I know that the time will come when I'll have to tell Angie the truth, but not for several more years. Not until she's old enough to understand," said Louise, and Melissa responded with a nod.

"Anyway," Louise said a few moments later, "I know, sweetheart, that you have been through the closest thing to hell there is on earth. I know that the two people who should have loved you and protected you the most were the ones who treated you like dirt, and that isn't right. _You are not dirt_, baby girl. _You are a princess. _And furthermore, you're _my _princess. And that's exactly how I'm going to treat you every single day for the rest of my life, starting now. Your poor little body has been through so much, and today is your first day home from the hospital, so I'll help you change into some pajamas so you can get into bed and relax, okay? And then I'll go make you some lunch and I'll bring it in here to you."

"You don't have to do all that."

"I want to do it, baby. Like I just said a moment ago, from here on out, I am always going to treat you like the princess that you are. I am going to spoil you rotten every single day."

"Thanks, Louise," Melissa said quietly.

"You're so welcome," Louise said kindly, and then she kissed her cheek. "Is there anything special you'd like? You can tell me," Louise assured her, knowing that the badly battered, withdrawn child would probably be hesitant to tell her if there was anything special she'd like to eat.

After a long pause, Melissa finally asked, "Can I have chicken soup?"

"Of course you can, baby. With the cold, rainy weather outside today, it's the perfect day for a nice bowl of chicken soup. I'll make you some sandwiches, too."

"You don't have to."

"_I want to_," Louise insisted, and Melissa responded with a simple, sweet smile. After planting another warm kiss on her cheek, Louise asked her, "How's the pain, sweetie? And don't try to be brave and act like it doesn't hurt because I know it does. You have two broken ribs that are still healing, and you had a bad concussion when you were in the hospital, and you had surgery on top of that. The doctor gave me some pain medicine to give you when you needed it, but he said it was best if you didn't take it on an empty stomach."

"Yeah, it does still hurt," Melissa admitted.

"Your ribs or your head, or both?"

"Just my ribs. My head's okay."

"Okay, baby. Don't worry. As soon as you've finished eating, I'll give you your pain medicine and we'll have you feeling better in no time at all. Now let's get you comfortable," said Louise, and then Louise helped Melissa change into a pair of pajamas that she picked out for herself and she got into bed and got (relatively) comfortable. Then Louise made Melissa lunch and brought it to her, and after both she and Angie ate, Louise gave Melissa the pain medicine the doctor prescribed. Shortly after that, Melissa asked Louise to read to her, and Louise got in bed with Melissa and held her in her arms while she read her one of her favorite stories. Jealous for her mommy's attention, Angie climbed up into bed on the other side of Melissa, and Louise laughed and smiled and happily read to both of her little princesses. And finally, a couple of minutes after Louise was finished reading to them, they both fell asleep in her warm embrace.

* * *

As the next few weeks sped by, Melissa's ribs healed up well, but her heart was another story. She frequently had horrific nightmares, and she found it terribly difficult to go out of the apartment or to be around anyone other than Louise, Angie, or Mark. Louise soon found an excellent child psychologist for Melissa, a tall brunette lady named Dr. Jessica Lowndes. Louise took Melissa to see her twice a week, even though it was difficult for her to afford it financially, because she knew that it was just as important to for Melissa's emotional wounds to be tended to by a professional as it was for her physical wounds to be tended to by one. She made sure Melissa never missed a single session with Dr. Lowndes, and she also joined Melissa when the doctor felt it was necessary for her to be there and provide emotional support.

Melissa's sessions with Dr. Lowndes were helpful, and she often turned to fiction to help her cope as well. During her years of harrowing abuse in her first home, she often used reading as a means of escape, and Louise made certain she had a constant supply of books for her obviously bright, growing, hungry mind to chew on. However, when Melissa was with her abusers, she typically had to try to hide in order to read, and even though she trusted Louise, she still preferred to try to find a hiding place before reading one of her books. Louise didn't show it; she made sure to stay strong for Melissa's sake, but it really tore her heart up whenever she discovered Melissa hiding in the closet or under the bed, reading with the help of a flashlight. In those times, Louise gently coaxed her out, and then she would often have Melissa sit with her in her lap while she read to her. Louise was constantly coming up with helpful, creative ways to help Melissa feel safer and more at ease.

One big way in which Louise made Melissa feel safer was the decision she made regarding her education. Melissa would have to return to school in January, but she admitted it to Louise that going back to school was something she was deeply dreading. Because of the continual cruelty she'd endured with her biological parents and her previous foster family, she'd never really been able to fit in well with other kids her own age. And not only did they frequently shut her out; to add insult to injury, they constantly ridiculed her and made fun of her and bullied her. Louise, having endured similar treatment from the doctors and nurses after her escape from the hellhole, could easily relate. Louise well remembered how helpful it was to her when Mark took her out of the hospital and brought her home with him. Thanks to his kindness, she was able to shut herself away from the rest of the world for a good long while and begin the process of healing, having people by her side who supported her every step of the way and treated her with respect. Louise knew beyond a doubt that Melissa deserved nothing less. She knew that Melissa needed to be surrounded by mature people who understood everything she had been through and treated her with the sensitivity and respect she deserved; that the last thing she needed was to have to put up with the cruelty and stupidity of a bunch of immature little brats for eight hours a day. Consequently, despite the fact that this was also difficult for Louise financially, she decided to hire a tutor to come to the apartment and teach Melissa all her lessons during the day while Louise was working downstairs in the bakery.

The tutor she hired, a fifty-three-year-old black lady named Mrs. Hendrix, was a highly intelligent, creative soul with a real gift for both teaching and nurturing. She was a new grandmother with the sweetest, gentlest disposition, and it took her all of two seconds to fall head over heels in love with Melissa. Mrs. Hendrix had been working with little children for three decades and she'd been a mother for almost as long, so she knew how to put Melissa at ease and start bringing her out of her shell. When Mrs. Hendrix began tutoring Melissa in January, Melissa was seriously behind in her studies, obviously because of all the trauma she'd been enduring while in school. However, over the next few months, Melissa thrived under her tutor's special guidance, and Mrs. Hendrix was delighted to discover that her cherished pupil was as gifted a student as she was a teacher. Melissa got caught up in her studies quickly, and it wasn't long before she was actually surpassing even Mrs. Hendrix's high expectations of her.

And Melissa wasn't the only one surpassing expectations. Leah was as well. On the evening of the thirteenth of April, a Monday, Leah paid Louise a surprise visit. Since Louise's true identity had never been found and no one knew when her actual birthday was, she'd always just celebrated her birthday with Angie on the fifteenth of April each year, and when Leah had come over, it was two days until both of their birthdays. And Leah's birthday present was priceless. Thanks to all of the high-level connections Leah and her husband had in their state government, they were able to bend the rules for Louise and cut through all the red tape with great speed, and Leah informed Louise that night that her adoption of Melissa would officially become final on hers and Angie's birthday that year. To say that Louise was thrilled by Leah's announcement would be the understatement of the century. She had tears of joy streaming down her cheeks when Leah told her the news. Ironically, though, one person who _wasn't _happy about the announcement was Melissa. After Leah finally went home that night, Louise could see it that Melissa was pretty upset about something, so she got her to sit down on the living room couch so they could talk.

After Louise wheeled herself over next to the couch to be closer to Melissa, she asked her, "Darling, what is it? I can tell that something's really bothering you."

"It's nothing," Melissa said quietly.

"No it is not 'nothing,' either. I've gotten to know you pretty well these past few months, and I can tell when something's upsetting you. What is it, baby? What's the matter? Don't be afraid to tell me."

After a long pause, the child finally said to Louise, "If I tell you, it'll make you feel bad, and I don't want to make you feel bad."

"Baby, whatever it is that you have to tell me, I won't feel bad. Talk to me. You can tell me anything in the world, and no matter what it is, I will always be here for you. You know that."

"I know," said Melissa.

"What is it?" Louise asked her so gently.

Then with painful hesitation, Melissa finally admitted to Louise, "I don't want you to adopt me."

It was difficult for Louise to hear that, but in that moment, she didn't show it. She stayed strong and kept her emotions reigned in because she knew how very important it was for her to be calm and patient with Melissa now.

"Why not, sweetheart?" she lovingly questioned.

After another long silence, a tear-filled Melissa told Louise, "I can't talk about it. I can't explain it. It's too hard."

Louise then pushed herself from her wheelchair to the couch so she could sit even closer to Melissa, and she wrapped her arm around her shoulders. "I know it's hard to talk about, but try, honey. Please. Help me understand so I can help you."

Melissa remained quiet and hesitant for a long time, but finally, she asked Louise, "Do you remember the kinds of things he used to do to both of us?"

"You mean Saul Donaldson?" questioned Louise, and Melissa nodded. "Yes, sweetheart, I do remember."

"My daddy did the same things when I lived with him and my mommy. And every time he did, he said stuff."

"What kind of stuff?" Louise asked her so gently.

"He said, 'I'm your daddy and that means I own you.' And he said, 'I'm your daddy and this is what daddies do.' And when he did those things, my mommy just sat there and watched. I needed her help and she didn't do anything. That's what mommies and daddies do. They hurt you and they don't do anything to help you when you need it and I **never, ever **want another mommy or daddy in my life again. **Ever.** I don't want you to be my mommy on Wednesday. I don't want to have to call you 'Mommy.' I just want us to be friends like we are now. I like the way everything is now and I don't want anything to change."

For several long moments, Louise couldn't say anything. All she could do was hold that priceless little child in her arms as rivers of tears flowed from her eyes. After kissing her head again and again, Louise was finally able to tell her, "Baby girl, _real _mommies and daddies would rather die than do anything to hurt their child. _Real _mommies and daddies would give their lives in a heartbeat to protect their child. Your first parents…they weren't real parents at all. They were a cheap imitation, not the real thing. I want to become your mommy on Wednesday, a _real _one. I want that more than anything in this world. But I think that for you, that's too much, too soon, isn't it?" Louise softly asked, and Melissa, who was now crying tears of her own, responded with a nod. Again, Louise kissed the top of her head, and as she rocked her, she said, "I understand, sweetie. I understand."

"Dad would always go on and on about the Fifth Commandment and how God expects children to honor their parents and that the Fifth Commandment meant that I always had to do whatever he wanted me to do, no matter how much it hurt me. No matter how sick it made me feel. He always went on about how he had God-given authority over me and how God always expected me to obey him no matter what. I didn't matter at all. I was nothing and he was everything. He had all the power, and so did my mom. It's like I was just a toy to them that they owned. I don't want anything like that in my life again. I don't want anybody to have authority over me. I want to be a person. I want to be independent. I want to think for myself."

"Sweetheart, nobody in this house is ever going to treat you like you're not a person. And _I want_ you to think for yourself. And while you're too little to be independent right now, I do want to do everything I can to help you to grow up into an independent adult someday. And as for your abuser's so-called 'God-given authority' and his Scripture-twisting, I can promise you that the good Lord has **nothing **to do with it and I assure you that God is **furious **about it. And when your abuser stands before Christ at his judgment, he's going to have a lot to answer for."

"Do you really think so?"

"I know so. Just because somebody throws a Bible verse at you like your abusers did, it doesn't mean they're in the right. Jesus Himself had Scripture twisted and used against Him by Satan. He fasted for forty days and forty nights before His earthly ministry began, and in that time, the devil came and twisted Scripture and used it against him to tempt Him. And Jesus responded to Satan with Scripture, using it the _right_ way. Baby, the Bible is like a scalpel. When a good, kind doctor is operating on a patient, he uses a scalpel to cut out a cancerous tumor and save his patient's life. But an abusive, mean-spirited person can also use a scalpel to cut and harm someone for his own sick, perverted pleasure. And that's what your abusers did to you. Do you understand?"

"I think so."

"It is true that the Bible does command children to honor their parents. However, it is **equally **true that the Bible **also **commands parents to not do anything to provoke their children to anger. God **never, ever** intended for the Fifth Commandment to be twisted into a weapon to be used against you. And any parent that harps on and on about that commandment needs to be reminded that they have an equal responsibility to not provoke their child to anger and to treat their child the way they want to be treated."

Melissa nodded, and then she looked up at Louise and asked, "Do you really believe in the Bible? That God wrote it and everything?"

"Absolutely. I believe the Lord inspired all the writers of Scripture."

"And you believe in Jesus?"

"Absolutely."

"Why do you believe in Him and not in some other religious leader, like Buddha or somebody?"

"Because I know I have the Holy Spirit living inside me. And the Holy Spirit only comes to live inside a person after they've trusted in Jesus to save them from their sins."

"You mean save them from going to hell after they die."

"Yes. When I first woke up in that basement, I didn't have any memories at all. I didn't even know my own name. But the one thing I _did _remember was that I belonged to Jesus. Throughout all of this, all my pain, all my struggles, He's never let me go. I don't know when it happened but I do know that at some time in my life before I woke up in that terrible place, I trusted Jesus, and He held onto me. You see, what makes Jesus different from all other religious leaders is that He _isn't _a religious leader at all. He's a _savior_. He isn't about religion. He's about _trust. _Religion is simply humanity's way of trying to earn an eternity in heaven on your own, which nobody can do. What sets Jesus apart from everybody else is that because He was perfect and lived a perfect life, He was able to give up His life in our place, to pay the penalty for our sins, and as long as we trust Him, He gives us eternal life, which is a free gift. We don't have to earn it. We don't have to do any works to maintain it or hold on to it. All we have to do is _accept it_. Jesus Christ _is _the way, the truth, and the life and no one comes to the Father except by Him."

"It's hard for me to trust."

"I know it is, sweetheart. I know it is. But you can always trust Jesus. Always. He loves you even more than I do, and that's really saying a lot. No one treasures little children like He does. When His disciples asked Him who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, He called a child over to Him and said that unless they are converted and become like children, they would not enter the kingdom of heaven, and whoever humbles himself like that child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Unlike the rest of the world, Jesus showed great honor and respect to little children, and He deeply valued their trust. He still does. He doesn't ever want to hurt you. He only wants good things for you. He only wants what's best for you."

"Well right now, I'll just have to take your word for it."

"Oh baby," Louise whispered, and then she kissed the top of Melissa's head once again and gave her the longest hug. Then finally, she told her, "I just want you to know that I love you more than anything in this world. More than anything. And I understand that the so-called 'parents' in your life only wanted to have power over you and control you like an object, and that's not right. I don't want any power over you. I just want to love you and take care of you and be there for you. Nothing else. And when the adoption becomes final on Wednesday, you don't have to start calling me 'Mom' if you don't want to. Like I said before, I understand that that's too much, too soon. We'll just be friends for right now, okay? Two friends who love each other more than anything else on earth."

"Thank you, Louise," said Melissa as she hugged her, and of course, Louise fervently returned the hug.

"Thank _you_, sweetheart. Thank you so much for being in my life. I just love you so much, and I so love having you here with me."

Once again, Louise planted a tender kiss on the top of Melissa's head, and she just held her and rocked her for the longest time.


	9. Hurricane George

**A/N: **See Chapter 1 for Disclaimer.

**Chapter 9: Hurricane George**

**Chapter Summary: **Louise Jefferson has a terrible fight with her husband George and walks out; afterwards, the Jeffersons' lives are never the same.

**April 7, 1976**

Louise Mills Jefferson met her husband George in Harlem when they were teenagers, and they got married in October of 1952 when Louise was twenty and George was twenty-two. The following year, on the third of November in 1953, their son Lionel came along, and while they were thrilled to have their first child, it was a terrible struggle for both of them. George had lost his job two weeks before Lionel was born and no matter how hard he tried, he simply couldn't find work. Things were so bad for them financially that just ten short days after they brought Lionel home from the hospital, Louise had to go out looking for work too, and it wasn't long before she found a job working as a maid for a well-to-do white family. And despite the fact that she wasn't even close to recovering from Lionel's long and difficult birth, she worked her butt off to support her family during the day and came home and took care of her angry, distraught husband and newborn son at night. To say the least, she got very little rest in a vulnerable time in her life when she needed rest the most, and George certainly wasn't helpful. Not only did he _not _do any of the cooking and cleaning to try and help Louise out, seeing as how he considered that to be "women's work," but he _also _wasn't very kind, thoughtful, or understanding to Louise. In fact, he often took all of his frustration and guilt out on her and made her heavy burdens even heavier. However, Louise was insightful enough to understand that even though George was being terribly unfair to her, even cruel, it was only because he felt horribly guilty about not being able to find a job and having to live off of her. In that time, she was remarkably patient with George even though he certainly didn't deserve it, and even George admitted it to his buddies more than once that he was amazed that Louise didn't divorce him. Things actually got so bad that George's continual verbal and emotional abuse of Louise in that time caused a huge rift between Louise and her mother. Abigail Mills was so furious with the awful way George treated her daughter that she eventually stopped coming to their apartment altogether. Not long after that, she got a new job in Louisiana and moved down there. And while she still kept in touch with Louise through letters, things were never truly the same between the two of them. Things remained somewhat estranged between them until Abigail died ten years later, and George knew deep down that it was all his fault; that it was _his _despicable treatment of Louise that drove her mother away from their young family. It wasn't until Lionel was almost two years-old that George was finally able to find a steady job, but even then, he didn't make enough money so that Louise could give up her job and stay at home with Lionel like he'd hoped. Thankfully, though, George wasn't feeling quite so guilty now that he was the main breadwinner of the family again, so he did become (somewhat) easier to get along with.

Louise and George worked side by side at various jobs for the next sixteen years, scratching and saving, struggling to get by. There were many times along the way that George wanted to stop and give up, but Louise was always there strengthening him, encouraging him, and giving him a good kick in the pants when he needed it. In all reality, it was only because of Louise that George was able to keep going until the day finally came in 1971 that he was able to open up his first cleaning store. Then in January of 1975, after George Jefferson opened his third cleaning store and he was truly wealthy for the first time in his life, he and Louise and Lionel moved into their big, posh East Side apartment that they all loved, and they officially left poverty behind.

For the next fifteen months, George and Lionel were as happy as they could be. Engineering student Lionel had met and fallen in love with Jenny Willis, the racially mixed daughter of the Jeffersons' upstairs neighbors, Tom and Helen Willis, and they had gotten engaged. Unfortunately, George's behavior towards the Willis family was downright shameful because he was a very racist man. He was continually calling Tom a honky and Jenny a zebra, and he never failed to make some kind of racially charged joke at the Willises' expense whenever they came downstairs to the Jeffersons' apartment. Although George was a very hard worker and a fine businessman, when it came to the way he behaved in his relationships with others, his wife in particular, he was horribly narcissistic and childish. While Louise was happy to be in their new apartment and happy to be better off financially, it wasn't a secret that being married to George Jefferson could try the patience of Job.

Even though Louise had worked every bit as hard as George had to take care of their family and help get them where they were – sometimes even _harder_ – George rarely gave her the credit she deserved. Instead, he was always making speeches about how _he _had "climbed the ladder of success rung by rung" and how _he _had made it out of the ghetto with "nothing but guts, drive, and determination," and how _he_ was a self-made man who had "made it on his own without any help from anybody." Although George did care for Louise deep down, he was painfully egotistical, and not only did he always have to make everything all about himself; he was also continually pulling stupid, childish, selfish stunts and getting himself into trouble. Louise wasn't just George's wife; she also constantly had to function as both his mommy and his conscience because George wasn't emotionally mature enough to step up to the plate and accept responsibility for his bad choices and words and actions on his own. And while Louise was always expected to be there for George to provide warmth, kindness, encouragement, and a listening ear whenever he had a problem and needed someone to talk to, he rarely did those things for Louise when _she _needed George to be there for _her._ Whenever Louise was having a problem and she needed George to listen, he only did so reluctantly and his mind usually wasn't fully present with Louise when she was trying to talk to him. The narcissist just couldn't bear to take his mind off himself for longer than two seconds at a time. And as if all of that wasn't bad enough, it was also true that George was sexist to his core, and he had no problems treating Louise like a second-class citizen because she was a woman. He may have provided for Louise financially, but he never failed to use that as an excuse to hold it over her head and try to control her, as if she were a subhuman object that he owned and not a person. His mother, Olivia Jefferson, wasn't any help, either. She was an unrelenting thorn in Louise's side, always unfairly criticizing her just to be mean to her, and naturally, George wasn't enough of a man to stand up to Olivia and put a stop to it. He always let his mother get away with disrespecting his wife instead of putting his wife first like a real husband would have done. And on one unforgettable Wednesday morning in April, fifteen months after Louise and George had first moved into the East Side apartment they both loved, Louise really needed George to be a real husband and put her needs before his own for once, and naturally, he failed to do so. It was a tragic mistake he would come to regret every day for the rest of his life.

Louise had been fighting with George every day and night for the past two weeks, and when she lied down on the couch at eleven-thirty this morning, waves of exhaustion washed over her just thinking about the inevitable battle that was going to occur when George came home for lunch today. She barely got any sleep at all the past two weeks because she was up every night yelling and fighting with George, and she was so very tired. And not just physically, but emotionally as well. It was times like these that really made Louise question just how much she actually meant to George.

At first, Louise was able to understand why George was angry and frustrated with her, because she was standing in the way of what could potentially be the biggest business deal ever for Jefferson Cleaners. Almost four weeks ago, George quickly made friends with a black man named Barry Ashford who also came from Harlem. Like George, he too had managed to build up his business, a big chain of hotels throughout New York, from the ground up. George spent as much time with him as he could and he brought him over to the apartment many times, and after they got to know each other better over the next two weeks, he started talking to George about a big business deal. Ashford was a millionaire many times over by now, and George knew that if he landed a big contract with him, he would probably soon become a millionaire in his own right. There was just one problem: Louise. Louise had always had a very strong sense of intuition, and right from the start, Louise could feel it in her gut that there was something shady about this man. She didn't have any facts to prove it, but even though she couldn't explain it, somehow, she just knew it in her heart of hearts that it would be very bad for George if he got Jefferson Cleaners involved with Ashford and his hotels. Louise had listened to her gut instinct all her life and it had never once failed her, and she knew she had to listen to her intuition now, no matter how much it infuriated George. Legally, Louise was fifty percent of Jefferson Cleaners, and no contract between Jefferson Cleaners and another person could be valid without _her _signature alongside her husband's. And when Louise let George know two weeks ago that she wasn't going to sign the cleaning contract between their business and Ashford's, that's when it all really hit the fan between the two of them. It was just one shouting match after another. At one point, George even threatened to forge Louise's signature, and she in turn threatened to inform the authorities if he did. George couldn't really tell if Louise was bluffing or not, but _he did know _with one hundred percent certainty that Louise _did _have the gumption to do it if she really wanted to, and that wasn't a risk he was prepared to take. So he just kept yelling at Louise and verbally abusing her instead, hoping to eventually wear her down. And with each day and each fight, things were only getting worse between Louise and George, not better.

Louise actually didn't blame George for being so furious with her in the beginning. She knew that this was an enormous business opportunity for him, and she really did feel horrible about standing in the way of it. She tried very hard to explain to George that she wasn't trying to hurt him by refusing to sign the cleaning contract. She tried to help him understand that the only reason she was refusing to sign was because she was genuinely afraid that if she did, George and their business would be harmed by this decision later on down the road. She tried to explain that she simply wanted to _protect _George and their business. But of course, George Jefferson just could not see past those dollar signs – or past his own enormous ego. While Louise was empathetic to George's position and did understand his anger, he made absolutely _zero _effort at all to even _try _to understand where Louise was coming from. All George could think was that this was his once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to become a millionaire and that his wife was standing in the way of it for no good reason at all.

And after so many days and nights of endless fighting and shouting matches, Louise was both physically and emotionally drained. Louise had spent the morning cleaning the apartment – including doing the chores their cleaning lady, Florence Johnston, was _supposed _to have done – and while she wasn't finished with everything yet, she was so exhausted that she decided to stop and take a little cat nap until George came home to eat lunch, which was typically around twelve-thirty or so. Louise fell asleep practically the instant she closed her eyes at eleven-thirty that morning, but unfortunately, she wasn't allowed to sleep for very long. Just twenty minutes later, the doorbell rang. Louise was in such a deep sleep that she didn't hear it at first. However, the person on the other side of the door was very persistent, and she rang the doorbell again and again numerous times. When Louise finally did open her eyes and got up off the couch and answered the door, she truly wanted to start crying. It was her mother-in-law, _the very_ _last person on earth _she needed to see today.

"Hello, Mother Jefferson," Louise said quietly.

"I knew you were in there, Louise. What in the world took you so long to answer the door? And why does your hair look like such a rat's nest?" Olivia exaggerated as she walked into the living room, Louise following behind her. Louise was wearing a light blue blouse with matching light blue slacks, and her hair was a bit disheveled, but it didn't look nearly as bad as Olivia was making it sound.

"I'm sorry about that. I was taking a nap," Louise explained.

"Taking a nap? Hmph! In my day, _I_ was far too busy working and taking care of our family and the house to even _think_ of lounging around, taking naps. You honestly have no idea, no idea at all, just how soft you have it, Louise. Not only do you not have to work to support your family like I did; why, you even have a cleaning lady to come in once a week to help you take care of your apartment. And yet despite all that, you _still _have to take _naps? _George really is a saint to put up with such a lazy wife!"

"First of all, Mother Jefferson, the reason I was taking a nap is because I've barely gotten any sleep at all over the past two weeks and I'm exhausted, as anyone would be. And second of all, _I never wanted _to hire a cleaning lady to help me out around the house. _I _would have been perfectly happy taking care of all the cooking and cleaning myself. _George _was the one who wanted to hire a part-time housekeeper, not me."

"Well after the messy kind of house _you _always kept over the years, I can hardly blame him."

Understandably, Louise wanted to rip into that rotten, hurtful, mean-spirited old bat and really tell her off, but as usual, she remained patient with her and she bit her tongue. Instead of arguing, she simply changed the subject.

"Uh…what brings you over here this afternoon?" Louise asked her.

"George called me from the office this morning, and we had a long talk about his big business deal with Barry Ashford." (George had been out working late at the office both times when Mother Jefferson had come over for her weekly visit over the past two weeks, so it had just been her and Louise and Louise hadn't brought the topic up at all while she was there.)

_Oh, no_, Louise inwardly groaned to herself. _George has even sic'd his mother on me!_

"What's the matter with you, Louise?" Olivia fussed. "Don't you understand what a huge opportunity this is for George?"

"Yes, Mother Jefferson, I do understand," said Louise as George opened the door and walked inside, having decided to come home early for lunch that day. "And if I could support this business deal with a clean conscience, believe me, I would," Louise continued while George came into the living room, both women standing with their backs turned to him. "But I just can't. I can't explain it, but every time I see Ashford, I get the strongest feeling that he's not someone George and I can trust. And even though there aren't any facts to back up my gut feeling as of yet, my gut instinct has never once been wrong."

"Well in this case, your gut instinct doesn't matter, woman!" George yelled, and Louise and Olivia turned around then to face him. "I'm the man of this family and the only opinion that matters around here is mine!"

"That's telling her, George!" Olivia cried out.

"Thanks, Mama."

"Now you listen here, George," Louise said sternly while pointing her index finger at him. "Number one: _you are going to stop calling me 'woman'!_ I have a name and you are going to use it!"

"I'll call you anything I want, woman!" George shouted back.

"Keep on calling me 'woman' and you'll be sleeping on the couch tonight," Louise warned. "Number two: you may be the man of this family, but _I _am the _woman _of this family and I'll have you know that my opinion matters every bit as much as yours does!"

"Your opinion will only matter as much as mine does the day that _you _start payin' the rent and all the bills!" George yelled at Louise while Olivia evilly grinned in the background. It was painfully obvious how much she was enjoying seeing George go at Louise's throat.

"I am so tired of all this, George! For so long now, you've acted as though I'm not as important as you are because I'm a woman. For so long, you've acted as though my contribution to our household is not as important as yours is. But _I am _as important as you are and my contribution _is _as important as yours is! I may not be working at a job earning money, but I do almost all of the cooking and cleaning around here and on top of that, **I put up with you every day! **If _that _isn't contributing to the household, I don't know what is! You know, I am really fed up with all of your macho garbage! I am sick to death of you constantly holding it over my head about you paying all the bills and using it as an excuse to treat me like I'm a second-class citizen in my own home!"

"Well that's just too bad, woman! You just better get used to it because that's the way it's always gonna be!"

"That's right, George!" Olivia cheered him on. "You tell this arrogant, rebellious wife of yours like it really is and you put her in her place! Louise, I'm surprised at you! Don't you have any Christian morals at all? The way I was brought up, it's a wife's duty to respect her husband."

"And heaven forbid a husband respect his wife, right?"

"Only if she earns it. And let me tell you something, Louise. I've been watching you all these years that you've been married to George, and even after all this time, you still haven't done one thing to earn your husband's respect!"

"Right on, Mama!" George yelled, and in the following instant, he could see that his words really had shot an arrow deep into Louise's heart, but he was so angry at Louise at the moment for blocking this big deal that he honestly didn't care. He was talking a load of crap and he knew it, but he figured he'd just apologize for it later once he and Louise finally got this ongoing fight of theirs settled.

"George, how can you say something like that?" asked Louise, who was visibly hurt and shocked that he would actually agree with his mother's vicious lies about her.

"Because it's the truth! You ain't no real wife to me, Weezy! A real wife would respect her husband enough to cosign his contract of a lifetime! This is my one chance to become a millionaire and if you really cared about me, you wouldn't try to stand in my way! I deserve better than this from you! Everything you have, the roof over your head, the clothes on your back, the food you eat, _everything_, is only because of me! Without me, you ain't got nothin'! Without me, _you _ain't nothin' at all! Just where do you think you would be today without me?! I'll tell you where you'd be! You'd still be in our old neighborhood, you'd still be a maid, and you'd still be poor! You could never rise to the top like I did! You could never run your own business like I do! You ain't got the drive or the brains!"

In the next moment, tears started coming to Louise's eyes, and she was so beaten down by physical and emotional fatigue that she didn't even try to hold them back like she would have in normal circumstances. If Louise weren't so exhausted after two weeks of endless shouting matches with George, she would've responded to his cruel, lying words with absolute fury, yelling at him, telling him off, and putting him back in his place. But now that she was in an unusually vulnerable place emotionally, she ended up responding to her tormentors, a.k.a. her family members, by being one hundred percent real with them about things she'd kept buried in the deepest parts of her heart for decades.

"Why do the two of you always treat me like this?" Louise asked George and Olivia in the saddest of voices. "What have I done to deserve this?" she questioned them, and then she walked over to Olivia and looked her squarely in the eyes. "Mother Jefferson, from the first moment I met you, I have _always _treated you with kindness and respect. Whenever you come over to our home, I do everything you ever ask of me and then some, despite the fact that you continually insult me and disrespect me and reject me. All I ever wanted from you was your acceptance and your friendship, yet no matter how kindly I treat you, you always act like you hate me. Name one thing that I have ever done in the entire history of our relationship to deserve that kind of an attitude from you. Just one." Of course, Olivia remained utterly speechless. There was absolutely nothing on God's green earth that she could possibly say to that and she darned well knew it.

Louise then stepped over to George, looked him in the eye, and told him truthfully, "George, when we first met back in our teens, you really were a different person. You were so gentle and kind and thoughtful and loving. You really swept me off my feet. But it seems that practically the moment after we said 'I do,' you changed into a different person. You stopped being sweet and sensitive. You stopped wearing your heart on your sleeve. Back when we were dating, you would never dream of doing anything to hurt me or disrespect me. You even stood up to your mother a couple of times when she insulted me. But practically two minutes after we got married, you just morphed into this hurtful, self-centered, sexist creep who had to be all macho all the time and put me down in order to make himself feel important. For so many years, you've had this attitude that women aren't as important as men; therefore, I'm not as important as you are. My needs don't matter as much as yours do. My desires don't matter as much as yours do. My hopes and my dreams don't matter as much as yours do. Heck, you don't even know what _my _hopes and dreams _are_. The only people's dreams that matter in this house are yours and Lionel's, not mine. And it's been hard to live that way, but I did it. I did it for many years because there was just enough of that sweet, gentle boy I fell in love with still living inside of you to keep me going; to keep me loving you and believing in you. But enough is enough. If a wife starts letting her appearance go after she gets married, after having kept herself all dolled up for her husband during their dating years, the husband feels lied to and betrayed and he complains. But if a young man acts all sweet towards his girlfriend when they're dating and then changes into a selfish, arrogant loudmouth after they get married, she's just expected to accept it and be a good little girl and not complain. Well _I was _a good girl for many years, George. I took so much for so many years. For so long, I've felt so hurt and betrayed by you. I've felt lied to. When we were dating, you lied to me about who you truly were inside, George. You really did. For so long, I've foolishly believed that deep down underneath all your garbage, you were a kind, decent, caring person. For so many years, I've foolishly believed that deep down underneath your big mouth and all your macho nonsense, you really did love me and respect me and appreciate all the hard work I've put in alongside you all these years to help get our family where it is today. But after all the terrible things you just said to me, I know better. You don't truly love me or respect me at all and you never really did. You just wanted to use me for your own self-serving purposes all these years. You just wanted a housekeeper and a cook and a sex object and a shrink to make you feel better after you had a hard day at work. You were never once interested in doing any of those things for _me _when _I _might need it. _I _never factored into the equation at all. Everything has always been all about you. The only person George Jefferson has ever truly loved is George Jefferson. And I can see it now that that is never going to change, and you want to know something? I've had it. I can't take this anymore, George. _I won't _take this anymore." Then without saying another word, Louise simply grabbed her purse off the desk and walked out of her apartment, George not uttering a syllable to try and stop her.

It was the most tragic mistake George Jefferson would ever make.

* * *

**May 3, 1982**

"Get outta my way!" George Jefferson yelled as he furiously stomped into his office in downtown Manhattan, giving the poor young black man who was unfortunate enough to have stepped in his path a vicious shove.

"I'm terribly sorry, Mr. Jefferson," the young man said in a shaky voice.

"What's your name?" George barked.

"J-Jesse Bartlett," he responded in the same frightened, shaky voice. He was a twenty-six-year-old, newly married man who had been working as one of George Jefferson's junior executives for the past year, and he really was a very sweet guy. The secretary and all the other employees who were standing around, watching this painful scene unfold, felt so very sorry for him.

"You're fired!" George yelled without a moment's hesitation.

"But sir, I didn't mean to get in your way."

"If you ain't got enough sense to watch where you're goin' then you ain't got enough sense to work for me! Get out!"

"But sir–" he protested.

"Didn't you hear what I said?! I said get out! Now! Clear out your desk and get outta here before I break your neck!"

He no longer even tried to keep defending himself because he knew it was useless; he merely did as George said and went to his office to start packing up his things.

George Jefferson was utterly impossible to deal with and everybody who had the misfortune of having to work for him knew that fact painfully well. There was simply no way to reason with the man. Jesse Bartlett wasn't the first unfortunate soul who had been unfairly and needlessly fired because of George's horrific temperament, and all the people standing there that day knew he probably wouldn't be the last.

"What are all you idiots just standin' around here for?!" George shouted at everyone a couple of moments later. "I ain't payin' you creeps to just stand around like a bunch of worthless statues! Get back to work before I fire all of you!"

Of course the moment he said that, everyone quickly scurried off to their desks. George then stomped to his own office and slammed the door shut.

As soon as George was out of sight, Emma, the new cleaning lady, walked up to her friend Camille's desk and asked in a hushed whisper, "Why is Mr. Jefferson always so mean?"

Both Emma and Camille were black, and while Emma was tall, slim, and average-looking, Camille was short and slim and she was very beautiful, which was probably one of the reasons why George hired her to be his personal secretary when he first opened up his main office in downtown Manhattan five years ago. Emma had recently lost her job and she badly needed a new one, and while Camille was very reluctant about it because of the horribly toxic atmosphere there, she did agree to put in a good word with George, and George agreed to hire Emma.

Camille sighed, and finally, several long moments later, she whispered back, "It's his wife. She disappeared a year before I was hired, but according to all the stories I've heard, he became terribly vicious and mean-spirited after Mrs. Jefferson suddenly vanished six years ago."

"What else have you heard?" Emma asked, again in a low whisper.

"I've heard that he wasn't always like this. I've heard that while he was always kind of a jerk, he once had a nicer side to him too; that he wasn't quite this horrible until his wife disappeared. Since then, he's been willing to fire somebody at the drop of a hat, toss even the people closest to him under the bus if it'll land him another business deal. He's even made money off of business deals that have resulted in people losing their homes. And as far as his home life's concerned, I heard he made his son Lionel so furious that right after he and his fiancée got married several years ago, he accepted an engineering position with a company in Dallas and moved away to Texas with his wife. The way I hear it, not even his own son will have anything to do with him anymore. He never calls. He never writes. Nothing," Camille explained in a low voice.

"That's the saddest thing I ever heard," Emma whispered. "Mr. Jefferson is obviously a cruel man, but yet, I can't help but feel sorry for him."

"Neither can I," Camille sighed. "I guess that's why I've continued working here all this time. Even though Mr. Jefferson is so awful, I know that it's only because he's in so much pain inside. I don't know what I'd be like if my husband suddenly disappeared like that. But anyway, we'd better get back to work before Mr. Jefferson comes out of his office and sees us talking like this. You could get fired around here merely for breathing in the wrong direction."

"I hear ya, girl. Back to work," Emma whispered, and then she went off to wash the windows while Camille got started on some paperwork she had to do.

* * *

Later on that evening, as Florence Johnston came walking down the corridor of the twelfth floor of her apartment building, she saw George's next-door neighbor, Harry Bentley, leaving a bag of groceries behind at his doorstep.

"Hello, Mr. Bentley," Florence said kindly.

"Ah, hello there, Florence," Mr. Bentley responded with the warmest smile, as he usually did.

"You're on another errand of mercy, I see."

"Yes. I was out grocery shopping today and I got to thinking of Mr. J. He's away at the office fourteen, sixteen, sometimes even twenty hours a day. He barely sleeps. He doesn't eat regularly and when he does, I doubt he eats anything healthy. I can't help but worry about him."

"It's incredibly sweet of you to still be so concerned about Mr. Jefferson after the terrible way he's treated you, especially after Ms. Jefferson disappeared six years ago. You're a much better person than me. I stopped feelin' sorry for that nasty, rotten toad the moment he fired my friend Mary. I wasn't even mad at him when he fired me a few weeks after Ms. Jefferson's disappearance. The way we always fussed and argued and fought with each other, I knew it was bound to happen sooner or later. It didn't come as any big shock. But when he hired Mary in my place and then fired her so soon after her husband was killed in that car wreck, that was it for me. After what he did to my poor friend, I can't stand him anymore. Whatever goodness there was inside of that mean little runt died the moment he realized that Ms. Jefferson was never comin' back."

Before Mr. Bentley could respond, the elevator doors opened and Tom and Helen Willis then stepped out of the elevator and into the hallway.

"Hello, Florence. Hello, Mr. Bentley," Helen Willis said pleasantly.

"Hello," Mr. Bentley said with a smile.

"Hey, Ms. Willis. Mr. Willis," said Florence, and Tom responded with a friendly nod.

"Talk about your coincidences. We were just thinking about you guys," Helen told them.

"That's right," Tom confirmed.

"Tom and I were just sitting around upstairs, talking about what all we wanted to do tonight, and we thought we'd come down here and invite you two to dinner," Helen explained.

"Why, thank you. I'd love to come," Mr. Bentley responded.

"And so would I. It'll get me out of my boss's apartment for a little while, so I'm all for it," Florence (halfway) joked. After George fired Florence, the agency sent her to the apartment of a wealthy, single, no-nonsense black woman named Bella Thompson, who actually lived on the same floor as George and Mr. Bentley. She hired Florence to be her live-in maid, but unlike Louise, _she did not _have endless patience with Florence's constant laziness and stubbornness and disrespectful attitude. _She _actually _expected _Florence to do the work that she was being _paid _to do, _and_ she expected her to do it _well. _To say the least, Florence did not like that job at all, but if she wanted to keep a roof over her head and get a paycheck every week, she knew she had no choice but to start toeing the line. The longer Florence worked for Bella Thompson, the more she regretted all the time that she had taken Louise for granted.

"Are you sure Miss Thompson won't mind?" asked Tom.

"Oh, she's out of town this week on a business trip. I've got the apartment all to myself for the next few days," Florence explained.

"Wonderful," said Helen. "We'll see you both in an hour, then."

"I'll be there with bells on," said Mr. Bentley.

"And so will I," said Florence.

"Terrific," Tom said, and then he and Helen turned around and pressed the button for the elevator, and Mr. Bentley and Florence each went back to their apartments to start getting ready.

* * *

"You ought to be declared a saint for still looking out for George the way you do, Mr. Bentley," Helen told him as they were all sitting around in the Willises' living room together after finishing dinner. "George was always a chauvinistic, racist, selfish little fool, even _before _Louise disappeared six years ago, but after Louise vanished, he became unbelievably cruel. So many people have suffered because of George Jefferson, and there isn't a snowflake's chance in hell that I would ever leave any food for him on his doorstep. Not unless I spat in it first, anyway."

"You know, a few years ago, I probably would've tried to say that you were overreacting, but there's no way I can say that now because you're right, Helen. You're absolutely right," Tom chimed in. "For the past six years, George Jefferson has been tearing through people's lives like a hurricane, causing all kinds of destruction. I've heard that he's made the atmosphere at his office so toxic that a number of people have become ill and have even suffered nervous breakdowns because they were so terrified that George would suddenly fire them if they so much as looked at him the wrong way. He's cost people their jobs, sometimes their homes, and sometimes even their health. I understand that losing Louise was a devastating blow for George, but still, it doesn't give him any right or excuse to go around causing so much damage to other people's lives."

"It certainly doesn't," Helen agreed.

"I know that losing Mrs. J. doesn't excuse Mr. J.'s horrific behavior, but it _does_ explain it. He was much too proud to openly admit this, but we always knew that Mrs. J. was everything to Mr. J. And perhaps most importantly of all, she was his conscience. His moral compass."

"That's an excellent point, Mr. Bentley," Tom concurred. "You know, when Louise was al–I mean, when she was still here, there were many times when George was willing to throw his morals, his friendships, sometimes even his own family under the bus for the sake of landing a big cleaning contract and making another buck. But more often than not, Louise was able to stop him. It was Louise who was always holding George back and preventing him from giving in to his worst tendencies."

"If only she were here now," Helen whispered, visibly fighting off tears. Tom responded by lovingly wrapping his arm around his wife's shoulders and holding her close to him.

"You know, it's truly incredible how many lives can be directly or indirectly impacted by just one person, without them even knowing it," Florence added. "How many people would still have their mental health intact, their jobs, or even their homes if Ms. Jefferson were still here? Just thinking about it makes me wonder how many lives did she indirectly influence for the better without her realizing it. There's no telling how many people she indirectly helped by being Mr. Jefferson's conscience before she disappeared. You know, I don't think Ms. Jefferson had any idea at all just how special she actually was, and it breaks my heart. Shoot, Ms. Jefferson is the reason why I had my job with the Jeffersons as long as I did. According to Mr. Jefferson, he was gonna fire me a number of times, but Ms. Jefferson always stopped him. And on top of that, she's the reason I didn't go through with it that time that I was thinkin' about killin' myself. She's the reason I'm alive today. Yet did I bother to show her any appreciation or respect? Did I _at least _bother to start doin' the job that _she was payin' me_ to do? No. I was too arrogant and lazy to really treat Ms. Jefferson with the respect _I should have_ treated her with. I had no idea just how much I was takin' Ms. Jefferson for granted until she was gone."

"I think all of us are guilty of that to a certain extent, Florence," Mr. Bentley said sadly.

"I think so too," Helen agreed.

"But _nobody _is more guilty of that than George," Tom insisted. "If he and his mother hadn't ganged up on Louise and torn her down the way they did on that terrible day, she wouldn't have left the safety of her home and she wouldn't have been out on the streets when that serial killer was probably out looking for his latest victim."

"Oh Tom, please don't say that," Helen pleaded. "We don't know that Louise's disappearance six years ago had anything to do with the Forty-Niner. There is still a possibility that she could be alive, even if it's only a slim one. I don't know. Sometimes, I…I think to myself that perhaps Louise did just suddenly decide one day that she'd had enough, that she was sick and tired of everybody taking her for granted, and that she went off to another city someplace and got a job and started a whole new life for herself under a new name. Sometimes I fantasize about finding her and giving her a piece of my mind for putting me through all of this…and then, naturally, I forgive her and I give her the biggest hug and I start crying and I just can't stop thanking the good Lord for bringing my best friend back into my life again."

"I think we've all had fantasies like that many times, sweetheart," Tom said gently.

"I wonder if George has," said Helen.

"Probably Mr. J. more than any of us," Mr. Bentley responded. "You know, I know that none of you like Mr. J. anymore, and to be painfully honest, I don't blame you. I know that he's done a lot of terrible, cruel things to a lot of people. And I know you all find my attitude towards Mr. J. to be puzzling. But the thing is, I'm able to still find sympathy in my heart for Mr. J. because I think I understand why he does the terrible things that he does. Now that Mrs. J. is gone from his life, most likely for good, there's an awful hole in his heart, and he needs something to fill it so it won't hurt quite so badly. So he's trying to fill it with more money, more stores, more deals, more contracts, social advancement. But all of those things are a very poor substitute for Mrs. J. Over the past several years, Mr. J. has expanded his business into twelve cleaning stores all over the state of New York, and last I heard, he's thinking about looking into opening up a new store or two around the Boston area. We all know that George Jefferson now has over a million dollars to his name. Yet, is there a single person in this room who can truthfully say that he's happy?"

"Unh-unh," said Florence.

"Nope," Helen said.

"Not at all," said Tom.

"Exactly. The man is a millionaire, but _he _doesn't have _the_ _money. The money _has _him._ And until he finally works up the courage to face all the pain in his heart and deal with it – which he may never do – he's going to remain trapped in the saddest life possible. Some people use pills or alcohol or drugs to try and medicate themselves and ease whatever pain they're going through inside their hearts. But for Mr. J., money and business and the black social register are his drugs, and it's heartbreaking."

"I never thought of it like that before, Mr. Bentley, but you're right," Helen told him. "You know, when Louise was here, George fought with her constantly. He always gave her so much grief because she would always call him out on all his crap and she wouldn't let him get away with throwing his ethics or other people under the bus for the sake of a dollar. George was always the spoiled two-year-old, while Louise was always the parent. And just like any spoiled toddler, George stupidly believed that true happiness meant eating ice cream for breakfast, lunch, and supper, and no rules. And now that Mommy Louise is no longer here to enforce rules and prevent George from tossing other people under the bus for self-serving reasons; now that he has free reign to go out there and make as much money as he wants in whatever ways he wants regardless of the consequences for other people, he's more miserable than he's ever been in his whole life. Ironic, isn't it? George used to believe that he would be so happy if Louise would just stop calling him out on his garbage. But now that he's gotten what he wants, now that he finally has over a million dollars to his name _without _Louise here to be his mommy and set the boundaries that _he knows_ deep down that he needs, his million dollars means nothing. Absolutely nothing."

"Well I hate to sound cruel, but I think it's all a case of well-deserved poetic justice," said Tom. "The cold, hard fact of the matter is, George did this to himself. He has no one but himself to blame for all of the misery he's in today."

"Preach it, child," said Florence. "We've all heard how on that horrible day six years ago, Mr. Jefferson was runnin' his big mouth and sayin' all kinds of cruel things to Ms. Jefferson. And we all know that the only reason she was out on the streets all by herself on the day that serial killer was out there was because Mr. Jefferson hurt her so bad, she just had to get away from him. We would still have Ms. Jefferson with us today if it wasn't for her husband's big, stupid mouth."

"You know, none of us were there when Mr. J. and his mother had that huge fight with Mrs. J. on that terrible day," said Mr. Bentley. "But according to everything Mrs. Jefferson has said, he was fighting with her because she was standing in the way of him landing a big cleaning contract with that guy who used to own that big chain of hotels throughout the state."

"Barry Ashford," Helen supplied.

"Right," said Tom. "According to Mrs. Jefferson, George was furious with Louise that day because she was saying that she had this gut feeling that Ashford was bad news, and she was refusing to cosign a big cleaning contract between them that could've really made George a lot of money. And then a few months after Louise disappeared, security camera footage from one of Ashford's hotels recorded him sexually assaulting a teenage prostitute, a minor at that, and afterwards, his reputation was so badly damaged that his business never recovered. He ended up selling all his hotels right before he was sent to prison. Louise's gut instinct was right on, and she ended up saving George from a lot of trouble. Just imagine what would've become of Jefferson Cleaners if Louise hadn't had the courage and the integrity to stand in the way of the contract. George could've lost a ton of customers because people would have associated Jefferson Cleaners with Ashford and his hotels. But because George Jefferson's money, business, and ego were all more important to him than his wife, he put himself first on a crucial day when he should have been putting _Louise _first. According to Mrs. Jefferson, both she and George were so incredibly wrapped up in themselves that day that they had no idea that that particular day was the forty-ninth day since Saul Donaldson had last kidnapped a woman off the streets of New York and murdered her. I remember that day as if it were yesterday, and on that day, I made Helen promise me that she wouldn't go out anywhere until I had come home from work that night, and then if there was anywhere she needed to go, I could go with her. And Lionel did the same thing. He walked with Jenny everywhere she had to go on the college campus that day, and he rode with her to and from school. He made sure she wasn't anywhere by herself outside that day. He looked out for her like a real man is supposed to do. But George? He was too worried about his big business deal and making more money to even think about paying attention to the news and looking out for his wife."

"Exactly," Helen agreed. "George Jefferson had a critical decision to make that day: to put his wife and marriage first, or his money, business, and ego first, and he chose the latter. _He chose _to treat his money, his business, and his ego as if they were more important to him than the best thing that ever happened to him. He had to choose between money and Louise that day, and he chose money, and just look at him today. He's gotten what he wanted. He's gotten what he's chosen. He's a millionaire now, but yet, he's nothing but a mere skeleton of his former self. Every time you look into his eyes, you can tell that they're just dead. There's no life in them at all. His anger and his selfishness have just eaten him up and destroyed him. Not even his own son can tolerate him anymore. He's become so mean-spirited and vicious that the only person who can really stand to be around him for longer than two minutes is his mother."

"I guess it's a good thing his mother still comes around to his apartment twice a week to clean it for him," Florence added. "He's fired so many maids through the years that eventually, the agency refused to send anybody else to him for a job interview."

"You know, even though Mrs. Jefferson is much too proud to admit it to anyone, I think that deep down underneath all her stubbornness, she actually does realize what a terrible mistake she made that day, and I think that there's at least a small part of her that genuinely regrets it," said Helen.

"I think Mr. Jefferson's mother always liked Ms. Jefferson deep down," said Florence. "But like you just said, Ms. Willis, she was too proud to actually admit it. And it's such a shame, really. Such a waste. That old lady couldn't possibly have hoped for a more wonderful wife for her son than Ms. Jefferson was, and if she only would've opened up her heart to her, they could've had such a beautiful friendship all these years. But for some strange reason, she always treated Ms. Jefferson like nothing she ever did was good enough. I guess I just can't understand in-laws because I'm not married."

"As you know, we don't have much experience with any of our in-laws, either, because right after Helen and I got married, both her parents and mine cut off all contact with us."

"That's right. But while I don't have much experience with my own in-laws, with the exception of Tom's dear Uncle Bertram, I do have a theory about Mrs. Jefferson's tumultuous relationship with Louise. Personally, I think it all boils down to one word: jealousy."

"What makes you say that, Mrs. Willis?" asked Mr. Bentley.

"Well just look at the Jeffersons' history. We all know that there was a time during George's teenage years when he used to run around with a street gang, and that there was even one occasion when he was convicted of shoplifting and sent to reform school. But soon after he met Louise, he began changing his ways. He quit his old street gang and he began to focus on earning an honest living, and on trying to make it out of his old neighborhood the right way. I think that when Mrs. Jefferson saw what an enormous impact Louise had on George's life, she was jealous that it was Louise who inspired such positive change in her son's life and not her. And I think she's resented Louise for it ever since. That's why she always refused to give Louise the acceptance and the respect she deserved."

"You know, Helen, I think you're onto something. I think you're right," Tom told her.

"And I'll tell you something else," said Helen. "Like Florence said, Mrs. Jefferson probably does realize way deep down how wrong she was to play the part that she played in all of this. And I thoroughly believe that after watching George's heart wither up and die like it has these past six years, there is a part of her that would give anything to have Louise back again. Just as we all would."

Too emotional to say anything, everyone else in the room just silently nodded in agreement.

* * *

That Saturday morning, George, who had spent the entire night at his office, was startled when he was awakened by a very unexpected visitor: his son Lionel.

"Huh? What?" George mumbled as Lionel gently shook him awake.

"Pop? Pop, it's me," Lionel said softly, and for one brief instant, Lionel saw joy in his father's eyes. Pure joy at seeing him again.

"Lionel," he said happily, and Lionel could see it in George that he was about ready to reach out and hug him. But then a couple of seconds later, as George really began waking up, Lionel saw the walls go up around his father's heart once again. "Lionel!" George angrily snapped a few moments later, and then he got up out of his big office chair and stood to face his twenty-eight-year-old son. "What do _you _want?!"

"I just wanted to come out and see my father for a while."

"Why now? You never call. You never write. I never hear from you at all and now all of the sudden, out of the blue, you decide you wanna come up to New York to see your old man. Yeah, okay. What is it, Lionel? What kind of trouble have you gotten yourself into? How much money have you come all the way out here to ask me for?"

"Pop, I didn't come all the way out to New York to ask you for money."

"Oh, wait. I know what it is. You finally came to your senses after all this time and decided to get a divorce from that zebra you're married to."

"That right there, Pop. That right there is the reason why I don't call or write. _That _is the reason why I decided to accept that big job offer and move to Texas with Jenny right after we got married. We may never know for sure what happened to Mom or why she left the way she did, but _we both know _that it probably had a whole lot to do with the terrible way you always treated her. Not to mention the terrible way you always let Grandma treat her. And I wasn't going to repeat your mistake. You constantly threw Mom under the bus because you didn't have the guts to stand up to Grandma. I wasn't going to do the same thing with Jenny. Pop, when a man gets married and has a family, his wife and his kids are supposed to come before any other relationship, including his relationships with his mother and father. And you knew this all along. It's basic common sense. Yet you always put Grandma ahead of Mom, and now we've lost Mom for good. That's why I can't let you be in my life again until you finally stop insulting my wife with racial slurs all the time. I love you, Pop, but I can't be like you. After your cruel big mouth made us lose Mom, I realized that _I have got _to be a better husband than you were. You may be my father, but Jenny is my wife, and my wife comes first. That's just all there is to it."

A cold viciousness came over George's eyes in those next few moments as he said, "First of all, Lionel, _if you ever _try to say to me one more time that we've lost your mother for good, I will personally kill you with my bare hands. And second, I will not apologize to you or anybody for anything I've ever done or for anything I ever will do. If you wanna live the rest of your life out in Texas, that's your business. If you wanna stay married to that dumb old zebra of yours, that's your business, too. But you just remember somethin'. No matter how much you may hate me, no matter how much a bunch of other people out there may hate me, it's my own toughness and grit that made me the millionaire I am today. Whether you like it or not, you only have everything you have today, not to mention the millions of dollars you're gonna inherit after I die, because of me. _I'm _the one who put you through college. _I'm _the reason you got your college degree. _I'm _the reason you have the successful career you have today, as well as that nice three bedroom house you've got out in Dallas. _I'm _the reason you're able to provide for you and your zebra."

"Pop, you know I love you," said Lionel, allowing George's vicious comment about his wife to pass because he knew getting angry would solve nothing. "And you know how much I appreciate everything you've given me," he continued. "But I think it would do you a lot of good to remember that Mom had just as much to do with all of this as you did. She was by your side every step of the way when we were poor in Harlem. She worked just as hard as you did to help get you where you are. There were a number of times when we both were so discouraged, we wanted to throw in the towel and give up, but Mom wouldn't let us. Neither one of us would have much of anything today without Mom."

"I know that," George admitted in a very emotional voice, visibly struggling not to cry.

"Let's face it, Pop. We both blew it. _We both _took Mom for granted, and neither one of us ever _really _gave her the credit she deserved when she was still here."

"Lionel, why are you here?!" George snapped as the tears he'd been holding back finally started to fall. "What do you want?! You wanna take some dumb trip down Memory Lane and start talkin' about your mother and make me miserable?! Is that what you want?!"

"I'm sorry, Pop. I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you. Honest, I didn't. I guess I just wasn't thinking when I brought up Mom. I'm sorry. I didn't come out here to upset you like this. I've just been thinking about you a lot, and Jenny's been thinking about her folks a lot, and we got to talking the other day and we decided we'd fly out here for my two-week vacation and spend some time with you guys."

After George wiped his eyes, he asked his son in a calmer voice, "Where are you two stayin'?"

"With the Willises."

"That oughtta make Mr. Day and Mrs. Night very happy."

"You just don't quit, do ya, Pop?"

Before George could respond, the phone rang and George answered. It was a call from a friend of a friend of his regarding some property he was interested in getting his hands on out in Massachusetts. When the conversation was over a few minutes later, Lionel asked, "What was that all about?"

"I'm gonna be openin' up two new stores out in Massachusetts soon, one in Boston, and one in a small town nearby called Haven Lake. I figured that after all these years keepin' my business confined to the state of New York, it's high time for me to start expanding out into other states. Everything's goin' okay for the Boston store so far, but there's been a problem with the store in Haven Lake."

"What kind of problem?"

"There's this bakery sittin' on the property where I wanna build my new store. Well, it's more than just a bakery. It's got an apartment on the second floor above the bakery where the owner lives. I've sent them one letter after the other, tryin' to offer them a large sum of money for the bakery, but after their first letter back to me, they stopped responding. I've had my secretary Camille try to call, but the second they hear that it's Jefferson Cleaners callin', they hang up."

"What did their letter say?"

"I got a typed letter from the bakery owner, basically tellin' me in so many words that they don't wanna sell me their business because it's also their home, and they told me that I can stick it."

"So what are you going to do?" Lionel asked, genuinely afraid of the answer. After all, he knew his father pretty well.

"Well, while it is true that I can't force this person to sell me their bakery if they don't want to, you know the old saying: money talks. I got in touch with some officials in local and state government and when they all saw the size of the political contribution I was pledging to their future campaigns, they agreed to help me out. They're having the bakery officially condemned, even though there ain't nothin' wrong with the building. I may not be able to pay them to leave, but the government _can _force them out and tear the building down."

"Pop, that's unbelievable. You're just going to force this bakery owner out of their own home, out of their own business, just like that?"

"Just like that," George said without a moment's hesitation.

"What's this person's name, anyway?"

"Some woman named Louise Wood."

"Louise Wood? Her name is really Louise? You're not jivin' me, Pop?"

"No. Her name's Louise. Why?"

"Well just think about it for a second, Pop. Mom's name was Louise."

"What do you mean was?!" George yelled.

"_Is. _Mom's name _is _Louise. I'm sorry. But anyway, Pop, do you really want to force a woman out of her home and take her business away from her at the same time? A woman who has the same name as Mom? Why don't you just back off and leave this whole thing alone? For sentimental reasons if nothing else. How about it? Why don't you do something nice for once? Just this one time? For Mom?"

"Lionel, I did not get where I am today by bein' sentimental. Bein' sentimental is for wimps! It ain't for millionaires like me!"

Lionel then shook his head at his father in pure disgust, and he told him, "You know something? I came over here to see you today to see if there was any way that we could bury the hatchet. But we can't. There's just no way. As long as you're throwing people out of their homes and constantly calling my wife a zebra and being so cruel to every poor soul unfortunate enough to cross your path, I can't have you in my life. Goodbye, Pop."

In the following moments, Lionel turned around and walked out of George's office, slamming the door behind him.


	10. David and Goliath

**A/N: **See Chapter 1 for Disclaimer.

**Chapter Summary: **Louise, Melissa, and Angie pay a visit to their local animal shelter; Louise is disturbed by frequent communications from a dry-cleaner in New York who wants her to sell him her bakery.

**Chapter 10: David and Goliath**

"Mommy, they're all so beautiful!" Angie cried out as she and Louise and Melissa looked at all the cats and kittens available for adoption at the Haven Lake Animal Shelter on this lovely spring afternoon in mid-March.

Louise laughed and said, "Yes, baby, I know they are."

"I wish we could take them all home with us," Melissa chimed in. "Cats are so cool!"

"Yes, they are, sweetheart," Louise agreed. "I wish we could adopt them all too, but we can't. As hard as it is, we have to make a choice."

"I can't believe it's come to this," a tearful woman's voice said in the exam room next door.

"I hate it too, Paula, but there's nothing more we can do now," said Dr. Jones, the vet who volunteered much of his time there. "Their mother just died and this litter is too sickly to survive. These kittens can't make it. They're far too weak. When we found the mother cat four weeks ago, it was obvious that she had been malnourished throughout the pregnancy, and I believe the kittens were born prematurely. And to make matters even worse, two of them have got pneumonia. We're full up as it is. We can't shelter these kittens, and it's a cold hard fact that even if we could, they probably wouldn't survive for longer than a couple of weeks at most. We have no choice. We have to euthanize them."

"Mommy, what does euthize mean?" asked Angie.

Louise paused for a moment before looking down into her child's eyes. Hesitantly, she explained, "Baby, when people say they're going to have an animal euthanized, it means that they're going to have a veterinarian give it a shot that puts it in a very deep sleep. After a little while, the animal is in such a deep sleep from the shot that…its heart stops and it dies."

Horrified, Angie asked, "They're going to kill those kittens in there?"

"_Yes_, Angie, they're going to kill them!" Melissa snapped as tears started streaming down her face. "Those poor sick helpless little babies in there are going to die because people don't want to be bothered with animals that are weak and sick!"

"Mommy, do something, please! You can't let the kittens die! They're just babies!"

Louise kissed Angie on the forehead and gave Melissa a loving pat on the back, and then she knocked on the door to the adjoining exam room. Paula, one of the volunteers at the animal shelter, opened the door.

"Uh, excuse me, but my girls and I couldn't help but overhear your conversation. And we'd like very much to adopt this litter of kittens you've been talking about."

* * *

"You're adopting _four _kittens?" Mark asked the next day while he and Louise were talking together in his living room. It was a Saturday morning, and the girls were outside playing in his garden.

"Yes, it's a litter of four. Three girls and one boy. The boy is an orange tabby, and two of the girls are gray, and then there's one calico girl."

"That's a lot of kittens."

"I know it's a lot, but I had to, Mark. They were going to euthanize them, and the girls were just so heartbroken. I just had to step in and do something."

"I understand. I don't think I could look into those adorable little faces of theirs and say no, either."

"Who could? And to tell the truth, I would've adopted them anyway after overhearing that conversation between the vet and the shelter volunteer. I couldn't just stand by and do nothing and allow those poor kittens to be euthanized."

"You've got a big, beautiful heart, Louise," Mark told her with a smile, and Louise smiled back. Then a couple of moments later, Mark asked her, "So what happens now?"

"Well after I paid for the kittens and signed the paperwork and everything, I took them to Dr. Rolland's animal clinic out on Highway Four where they'll be staying for a while. Dr. Rolland's going to do everything he can, but he says not to hold out too much hope, especially for the smaller gray kitten. She's the runt of the litter and she has pneumonia along with her brother. Anyway, I keep trying to warn the girls about not getting their hopes up as well. I don't want them to be too upset if they don't survive."

"Well, at least you're giving them a fighting chance. It's more than most people would do."

"I know, and I do believe that I've done the right thing. I just don't want to see Melissa and Angie get hurt."

"I've got a feeling that it probably would've hurt them a whole lot worse if you _hadn't_ stepped in and done something. If, God forbid, the kittens don't make it, at least Melissa and Angie can look at their mama and know that she did her best to try and save them and be proud of her because of it."

"Thank you, Mark," said Louise.

Silence filled the room then and it lasted for the next couple of minutes. Louise really seemed to be down about something, so Mark finally asked, "What is it, Louise? You seem to be depressed about something more besides the kittens."

"You're right," Louise sighed. "There is something going on."

"What is it?"

"I got this letter in the mail a few days ago from some big businessman in Manhattan. His name is George Jefferson, and he owns a chain of dry-cleaning stores in New York. Now, he's looking to expand his business into Massachusetts, and he wants to open up a dry-cleaning store here in Haven Lake, and he wants it to be where my bakery is. He wants me to sell him my bakery, _my_ _home_, so that he can open up his new dry-cleaning store in its place. He made me an offer for it in his intimidating letter."

"And how did you respond to his intimidating letter?"

"I wrote him back, and I told him that under no circumstances would I ever sell him my bakery. And I told him precisely where he could stick his offer."

Mark laughed out loud at that, and he said, "Good girl, Louise! I'm very proud of you."

"Thanks. I just wish I could be certain that this will be the end of it, but you know from personal experience what wealthy, powerful businessmen like George Jefferson can be like. I have a bad feeling that Jefferson isn't the kind of man who is willing to take no for an answer and move on with his life."

"And I have a bad feeling that you're right. And if you are right and he persists, if he sends you any more intimidating letters or harasses you in any way, you just let me know and I'll take care of him."

"Thank you very much, Mark. I appreciate that. I really do. But I think it's best if I handle this situation myself. It's my home and my business, so it's my responsibility. I'm just not sure _how _to handle all of this yet."

"Well, just remember, I'm always here if you need me."

"Thank you," Louise said warmly, and then she reached out and gave Mark a big, long hug.

* * *

When Mark came over to visit Louise three weeks later on a Sunday evening, he could take one look at her and tell that she was _not _in a good mood at all, and neither were the girls.

"What's going on around here, Louise?" asked Mark after he sat down on Louise's living room couch. "Why all the long faces?"

"Oh, the girls and I got some bad news from the animal clinic the other day," Louise told him.

"One of our kittens died," Melissa explained.

"Oh, no. I'm so sorry, sweetheart. I really am," Mark said kindly.

"Thanks. We are too," Melissa said sadly.

"It was the small gray girl," said Angie. "She died because she was real little and weak and she had…she had…"

"Pneumonia," Louise supplied. "She put up a long, brave fight, but she was the runt of the litter and she was simply too small and weak to fight it off in the end."

"I'm very sorry. How are the other kittens doing?" asked Mark.

"Thankfully, they're doing well," Louise replied. "The orange tom cat of the litter has gotten over his pneumonia and according to Dr. Rolland himself, he and his sisters are growing like weeds. If they keep making such great progress, he thinks he'll be able to let them come home by the end of this week."

"That's wonderful."

"Mommy says we're going shopping in a couple of days to buy a bunch of cat stuff," Angie announced.

"Yeah, we have to stock up on cat supplies, like cat food, litter, cat toys, scratching posts," said Melissa.

"Sounds like you ladies are really going to have your hands full," said Mark.

"We are," said Louise with a laugh.

"We have names all picked out for them!" Angie announced. "Want to hear them?"

"Sure," Mark answered the child with a loving smile. "What are they?"

"Well we each have our own cat," Melissa told him. "My cat is the big gray girl and I'm naming her Chloe because I think that's a pretty name."

"You're right. Chloe is a pretty name," Mark agreed.

"Louise is getting the orange boy," Melissa continued, "and I suggested the name Cinnamon and she liked it, so that's what we're calling him. And Angie's cat is the calico, and she's naming her Patches."

"Those are wonderful names, sweetheart," Mark told Melissa. "These new kittens of yours are very fortunate."

"I can't wait to bring them home!" Angie cried out.

"I bet you can't," said Mark.

A couple of moments later, Melissa looked over at Angie and said, "Come on, Angie. Let's go play in our room for a while."

"Why?"

"Because Louise probably wants to talk to Mark alone. You know they always like to talk about grown-up stuff when they're together. Come on."

Louise and Mark knowingly laughed, and then Angie said, "Okay, Melissa." Afterwards, she followed Melissa into their bedroom.

Once the girls were gone, Mark locked his eyes with Louise's eyes and asked, "How've you been, sweetheart?"

"Not that great," Louise sighed.

"It's more than losing the kitten that's got you down, isn't it?"

"Yeah. It's that stinking George Jefferson! He's sent me letter after letter after letter, and his secretary keeps trying to call me."

"How do you respond?"

"I don't. I already responded with one letter. I haven't answered any of the others. And whenever his secretary calls me, I hang up on her. I keep hoping and praying that Jefferson will eventually take the hint and leave me alone."

"I hate to say this, Louise, but he probably won't take the hint for a good long while. As you know, I was born into a wealthy family. And all my life, I've had to spend a lot of time around rich, powerful people like George Jefferson. And unfortunately, it's a simple fact that most of them are nothing but spoiled, overgrown toddlers who believe that they are entitled to anything and everything they want twenty-four-seven, regardless of the consequences for other people. Most of them don't know how to take no for an answer because they've never been told no a day in their lives. I doubt that George Jefferson will back down any time soon."

"You're probably right. And that scares me."

"Don't be scared, sweetheart. He can't force you to change your mind and sell him the bakery if you don't want to. I know it's a real nuisance to have to put up with all the letters and phone calls right now, but as long as you stand your ground and don't give in, he'll have to give up eventually. You just hang in there."

"Thank you, Mark," said Louise, and then she held out her arms to him, and he got up and wrapped his arms around her and gave her a big kiss.

* * *

"I can't believe this is happening," said a tearful Heather, sitting at one of the tables in the bakery with Louise, Mark and Frank on a warm afternoon in mid-May. Heather and her husband Jeremy were now expecting their first child, and with her being three months pregnant, she was becoming more and more emotional all the time, and the possibility of losing the bakery and her job certainly didn't help matters any.

"Now, now, Heather. It's going to be alright," Frank reassured her.

"I wish I shared your optimism, Frank," Louise sighed. "But we have to face facts. If George Jefferson has enough money to bribe enough politicians in our local and state government to get them to condemn our bakery, even though there's nothing wrong with the building, then we really don't stand a chance against him. George Jefferson is a very wealthy, powerful businessman with friends in high places. We, on the other hand, are just plain, ordinary, middle-class folks trying to run a small bakery in a small town. What can we do? How are we supposed to fight something like this?"

"Boss, with all due respect, I'm really surprised at you," Frank told Louise. "Where is that feisty go-getter we've all come to know and love these past few years, huh? Why, just look at you. Look at all you've survived. Look at all you've accomplished. Six years ago, you started out with nothing. You didn't even have your memories or a last name. After you first woke up in that hellhole, you were raped, tortured, beaten within a hair of your life, robbed of your ability to walk. And in just six short years, you have survived numerous surgeries and long, hard recoveries and physical therapy. You've learned how to live and function in the world from a wheelchair. You brought a beautiful, precious baby girl into the world and you adopted another beautiful, precious baby girl who needed a mama. You learned how to drive and you got your driver's license despite being in a wheelchair. You started a good career for yourself and you learned how to run your own business. Even though you always had the deck stacked against you, you still forged an independent life for yourself. You're running a successful business and you're financially supporting your family and Heather and me. On top of that, you're also raising two little girls, and you're doing all of this all on your own without a husband to depend on. There are very few people who could accomplish all that you have. You are the toughest, strongest, most resilient person that I have ever met. And after everything you've been through and all the challenges you've conquered, handling George Jefferson ought to be a snap."

Louise smiled at Frank then and told him, "Thank you for saying that."

"It's just the truth," Frank assured her.

"Frank's absolutely right, Louise," Mark agreed. "Don't be so quick to abandon hope. You can handle this. You can get through this. And we'll all be right here to help you. We're all right behind you."

"That's right," said Frank.

"Now George Jefferson probably has a bunch of politicians in his pocket and a whole team of uptown lawyers. So, we'll just fight fire with fire. I'll hire us a bunch of high-class lawyers to take Jefferson on in court," Mark told Louise.

"I don't know," said Louise hesitantly. "I don't think I want to be tied up for months or even years in some long, drawn-out court battle. And besides, Mark, you know it would be a long time before I would be able to pay you back for all the money you'd have to spend on a team of lawyers."

"I don't think we'll have much choice, Louise," said Mark. "If we don't fight this thing in court, you'll be left with no other option but to move out of the bakery. And as far as the money is concerned, that's the last thing I want you to worry about. I'll handle whatever costs are involved. After all, you are my best friend, and I know that if the tables were turned and it were my home and business at stake, you'd do everything you could to help me."

"You're right. I would."

"I just don't understand," Heather complained. "None of this makes any sense. George Jefferson obviously spent a ton of money to buy out a bunch of politicians and get this building needlessly condemned. And if he gets his way in court after we give him the legal battle of a lifetime, then he'll have to spend even more money to build a cleaning store in the bakery's place after the bakery is torn down. And after what he's put Louise through, I know that all of Haven Lake will gladly drive all the way to another cleaning store in another state if they have to so that they won't be giving any of their business to Jefferson Cleaners. There's no way that he can ever hope to make any money out of all of this. If anything, this will make him lose much more money than he'll gain. So why is he doing this?"

"I can think of two possibilities," Mark responded. "Number one: he has no idea just how much we all love Louise here in Haven Lake, and he blindly believes that Haven Lake citizens will be willing to give him their business. Therefore, he also blindly believes that eventually, he will make a profit out of this. Or, number two: he's doing all of this, not to make money, but to save his pride. I've known men like George Jefferson all my life. They're heartless, ruthless, arrogant, self-absorbed. And most of all, they're very, very spoiled. And whenever somebody dares to stand up to them and tell them no, especially if that somebody is a woman, their pride is wounded and they take it as a deep personal insult, and consequently, they'll stop at nothing to get what they want. They'll go to the most ridiculous extremes to make sure that they get their own way at the cost of the other person. It's their warped idea of saving face, I suppose. I hate to say it, but I think that that's the case with George Jefferson. I think that when Louise, a woman, dared to tell him no, he went ballistic and he made up his mind that he was going to turn this into a long, drawn-out, dirty battle that he intends to win at all costs. I could be wrong, of course. After all, I've never met the man. But that _is _what so many wealthy, powerful, privileged people are like in this world."

"Sounds like we're all in for a very long, hard fight," Heather said soberly.

"Yes, we are," Louise concurred. "But so is George Jefferson."

"What do you mean?" Frank asked.

"I just had an idea," Louise said as her expression turned hopeful.

"What?" asked Mark.

"Mark, you said that you would hire a team of lawyers to help us fight Jefferson in court, and I greatly appreciate that. But what if we gave him a battle on _two _fronts? What if we fought him in court _and _in the press? George Jefferson _could_ stand a decent chance against us in court because he's probably got his own team of lawyers, and they're probably some of the best lawyers that money can buy. But I'm certain that he _cannot _fight us and win in the press."

"What are you getting at, Louise?" Heather questioned.

"Ever since I first woke up in that hellhole six years ago, I've been disabled, and my disability has always been something that was working against me, making my day-to-day life a lot harder. I think it's time for that to change. I think this is one time in my life when I can use my disability to my advantage; make it work _for _me and not against me."

"Make it work for you how?" asked Frank.

"I'll tell you how. Louise and I will call up every single reporter and journalist we can and we'll tell each one of them her story," Mark responded. "We'll tell them about everything that has happened to Louise ever since she first woke up in that hellhole six years ago. We'll tell them all about how Louise was tortured and raped; how both her legs were broken beyond repair from all the beatings she suffered. And we'll tell them all about how a certain cruel, selfish dry-cleaner is trying to take Louise's home and business away from her. We'll make such a stink about this in the press that when we're done, people everywhere will despise George Jefferson. After people hear about what he's doing to Louise, they'll despise him so much that he'll lose most, if not all, of his business."

"But Mark, you told me before that he's caused people to lose their homes in business deals in the past. Yet Jefferson Cleaners is still going strong," Frank argued. "How come driving people out of their homes never caused him to lose any business?"

"Well as you know, I've done some investigating into Jefferson's business dealings, and it turns out that he paid several local TV stations and newspaper and magazine publications a handsome sum of money to kill these people's stories ahead of time."

"Kill their stories? What do you mean?" asked Heather.

"Many people who lost their homes in Jefferson's business deals did go to the press and tell them their stories, but he always paid the owners of local TV stations and newspapers and magazines to _not _go public with them," Mark explained. "Therefore, we've got to stay ahead of the game. We've got to get in touch with reporters in other states besides New York and Massachusetts – reporters from publications that Jefferson _hasn't_ gotten to and paid off. If we're fortunate, this story will become so hot that reporters in New York and Massachusetts will eventually _have _to cover it no matter how much money Jefferson has paid them to keep it quiet."

"Ordinarily, I'd never even _think _of doing anything like this," said Louise. "I'm a very private person. I don't advertise my personal business or air my dirty laundry all over the place. And I find it repulsive using my wheelchair and my past to try and manipulate other people into feeling sorry for me. I would never resort to this kind of thing in an ordinary situation. But this is _not_ an ordinary situation. If George Jefferson loses this fight, he simply loses a potential cleaning store and some money. He's already got twelve stores in New York making plenty of money for him, and he'll also have his new store in Boston. He'll be perfectly fine without opening another cleaning store in Haven Lake. He's wealthy and powerful. He's a millionaire, and he's already set for the rest of his life. However, if _I _lose this fight, I lose _everything._ My home. My business. My livelihood. My ability to provide for my children. And in a time like this, I clearly have no choice but to fight dirty and be manipulative. I have to take the gloves off. I have to use everything at my disposal, even my wheelchair. For so many years, my wheelchair has been nothing but a depressing reminder to me of what I've lost and all the things I'm not able to do. But now, my wheelchair is a weapon, and I _will _use it to my full advantage if I have to."

"Atta girl, Louise!" Frank said aloud.

"Right on!" Heather cried out.

"Don't feel bad about any of this, sweetheart," Mark told her. "You're right. You are absolutely right. I know you find the idea of using your wheelchair to garner sympathy from others to be repulsive, but it's like you said. You are fighting for your home and your business and your ability to provide for your children, and you're fighting for Frank and Heather as well. And you have been through far too much to allow some stupid, pigheaded dry-cleaner to take everything away from you now. And besides, you have to remember that it was never _you _who chose this. It was _Jefferson_ who chose this. _He's _the one who's backing you into a corner. _He's _the one who's pushing you into this fight. The only thing in the world you ever wanted was to be left alone to run your own business in peace. It's _Jefferson_ who is refusing to let this go. It's _Jefferson_ who won't take no for an answer and leave you alone like any decent human being would do."

"Amen," said Frank.

"That's right," Heather agreed.

"Thanks, you guys. I know you're right. I know that even though this whole thing is repulsive to me, I have to do it. I have to be conniving and manipulative and I have to fight dirty in order to beat Jefferson. And I know that _I have got_ to beat Jefferson at all costs, for your sakes," said Louise while making eye contact with Heather and Frank, "and for the sake of my children. This is one fight I simply cannot afford to lose. It's so disturbing, though, the idea of acting as manipulative and underhanded as George Jefferson in order to beat him."

"You know what you need, Louise?" asked Heather.

"What?"

"You need to get in touch with your anger."

"I'm already angry, Heather."

"Yes, but you're not angry _enough. _We need to help you get so angry that you won't feel a moment of hesitation at using the press or your wheelchair or anything else to bring George Jefferson to his knees."

"What exactly did you have in mind?" Frank asked Heather as she got up from her seat.

"You'll see," Heather replied. "I'll be right back." She then walked out of the bakery.

Louise, Mark, and Frank chatted amongst themselves for the next several minutes while Heather was gone, and when she returned, she had a picture of George Jefferson with her that she had cut out of a New York newspaper, which had come from an advertisement for Jefferson Cleaners. There was a dartboard on one of the walls inside the bakery that had been there back in the days when the bakery was owned by Louise's deceased boss, Garrett Andrews, and to this day, Frank, Heather, and many of Louise's customers liked to stop and enjoy a game of darts together. Heather took the dartboard and moved it down lower on the wall so that Louise could reach it more easily, and then she took all the darts out of it and pinned George Jefferson's picture over it. In the next moment, she walked over to Louise and handed her all the darts.

"Okay, Louise. This is what we're going to do," Heather told her. "Or to be more precise, this is what _you're _going to do. You're going to think really hard about all the terrible things George Jefferson has done to other people in the past, like how he's made them lose their homes, and you're going to think really hard about how he's threatening to drive you out of your home. And while you're thinking about all the injustices he's caused in the name of money and all the harm he's threatening to do to us in the name of money, you're going to throw these darts at his picture. Think of this as a preparation exercise. While you're throwing darts at George Jefferson, you'll be mentally preparing yourself to attack him in the press when you have to."

"You know, that's not a bad idea," said Mark as he and Frank stood up, and then Mark pushed Louise's wheelchair away from the table where they'd all been sitting and a little closer to the dartboard. "Making target practice out of George Jefferson's face just might do the trick."

"It just might at that," Frank agreed.

"Well, I guess it can't hurt anything," said Louise. "I'll give it a try."

"It's like Heather said. Just take a few moments and focus on all the people who have lost their homes because of George Jefferson's business deals," Mark suggested. "Think about how that sly, underhanded, mean-spirited little runt robbed those people of having the voice they deserved to have to tell their stories in the press. Think about how Jefferson is threatening Frank's and Heather's jobs here. And most importantly of all, think about your children. Think about Melissa and Angie and Chloe and Patches and Cinnamon. Think about how this will affect them if Jefferson wins. They'll all be robbed of the home they've come to love."

_That_ officially did it, and in the following moments, Louise threw all of the darts at George Jefferson's picture, most of them hitting their target, while Mark, Heather, and Frank cheered her on.

* * *

"Are you absolutely sure about this, Louise?" Mark asked her that Saturday morning after he loaded her suitcase into her van.

"I'm sure, Mark," Louise replied. "I know this probably isn't the smartest thing for me to do, but I have to do it. Despite all the anger that Heather helped me get in touch with the other day, I know I can't just blindside George Jefferson by going to the press and telling them my story without at least trying to come to a civilized understanding with him. I'm hoping against hope that maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to reason with him if I can simply talk to him face to face, one human being to another."

"I still say you're wasting your time."

"I know how you feel about this, and you're probably right. This probably will be a waste of my time. But I have to give him one last chance to change his mind before I try to start some national campaign in the media to make the whole country hate him. It's only fair."

"Yeah, but that's just it. George Jefferson is _never _fair. George Jefferson is out for one person and one person alone: himself. Getting what he wants is the only thing he truly cares about. And if you try to fight fair, he could take advantage of you and hurt you."

"Don't worry, Mark. He won't take advantage of me in this fight because I won't let him. But I have to try to be fair with him, to be human, because if I don't, I'll just be sinking to his level. I've got to conduct my life and my business in a better way than he does. I've got to be a better person than he is."

"Louise, you are _always _a better person than he is. _Always_."

"Thank you," Louise said with a warm smile, and then she looked down at her watch. In the next moment, she said, "Goodness, look at the time. I really need to hit the road."

"You be very, very careful driving around in New York, Louise. The traffic in Manhattan is insane," Mark warned her.

"I'll be careful," Louise assured him with a knowing smile. She really did appreciate how loving and protective Mark always was towards her. "And I know I said it earlier this morning, but I want to say it again. Thank you so much for looking after Melissa and Angie and the kittens for me this weekend. You and Estelle are such a big help."

"It's no problem, sweetheart. We love having the girls stay over with us. You know that."

"I know."

"You just look out for yourself in New York."

"I will. It is scary, though. I know that this is basically like David going up against Goliath. Jefferson is a millionaire with twelve stores. I'm a middle-class owner of just one bakery."

"Well, just remember that when David went into battle against Goliath, it was David who won."

"Thank you, Mark."

"I still don't like this idea of yours, but I do believe everything will work out in the end. I've refused to admit this for many years, Louise, but I've always known it way deep down that it was a miracle straight from God Almighty, Himself, that you survived all that torture without being permanently brain damaged. And I've always known it way deep down that it was another act of divine intervention on His part that you were able to carry Angie to term. You and your girls are all living, breathing miracles."

Louise's face lit up then as she said, "So, the atheist is starting to believe in God, huh?"

"The atheist is beginning to think that it's possible that he was wrong all these years," Mark confessed. "Anyway, my point is, there obviously is Somebody up there who is looking out for you. I don't think He's going to stop now."

"Thank you so much for saying that," Louise told him, and then Mark bent down and wrapped his arms around her and gave her a long kiss. When the kiss ended, Louise said, "And thank you very much for that, too. I needed it."

"My pleasure. Look, the second you check into your hotel room, I want you to call me, okay? I want to know that you got there safely."

"I will."

"And I also want you to call me if you run into any trouble with Jefferson."

"I will," Louise assured him, and then she and Mark hugged one another for the longest time.

"Everything's going to be alright," Mark assured her after their long embrace ended.

"I know it will be. Thank you so much for all the support."

"That's what best friends are for," said Mark.

"Like I just said, I'll call you as soon as I get there," Louise told him, and Mark nodded. Then she got in her van and drove away, and Mark waved goodbye.

**To Be Continued...**


End file.
